


Once Upon a Time on Mars

by tzigane, Zaganthi (Caffiends)



Category: Gundam Wing
Genre: Anxiety, Body Swap, Character Death, Child Soldiers, Falling In Love, Family Feels, Fix-It of Sorts, Grief/Mourning, Grumpy Old Men, Gundam Wing: Frozen Teardrop, Happy Ending, Hermit, Identity Swap, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Underage Drinking, M/M, Masturbation, Mecha, Memory Alteration, Naked Cuddling, Old Married Couple, Post-Canon, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Preventers (Gundam Wing), Time Travel, Why would a colony blow itself up, Wufei's knee creaks, ZERO System (Gundam Wing)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-17
Updated: 2021-01-17
Packaged: 2021-03-15 00:27:55
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 52,367
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28804293
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tzigane/pseuds/tzigane, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Caffiends/pseuds/Zaganthi
Summary: He held the device in his hands, turning the helmet over and over again as he thought about it. He had been quite adept at ZERO even before they had modified it. It had never been difficult for him. He could choose so many ways to go, if only he wanted. He already knew what he was going to do, though.He just, wanted to see what Khushrenada was thinking. At the end of the war, under house arrest, any of it. Things had changed so fast, from leader of the world to man under arrest to leader again like snapping fingers, and with those glimpses before he just. He needed to understand. It wouldn't bring anyone back to life. It might bring him peace.Letting out a slow unsteady breath, Wufei raised the helmet and slid it onto his head before thumbing it to life.
Relationships: Chang Wufei/Treize Khushrenada
Comments: 4
Kudos: 3





	Once Upon a Time on Mars

They had fought and lived.

It was a story that repeated itself, over and over. They had fought and lived; and then, they had fought and lived; and then, they readied themselves to do it again, and he was perhaps too many losses deep by then.

But Kathy had lived and she had fought so hard, proven that everything he and her mother had taught her had been worth it. They had executed Operation Mythos, as much as anyone could have been ready to execute such a strange choreography. Lives could resume.

Except for the dead.

Chang Wufei had lived.

Again.

He had lived, but he was just so tired. It all made him feel old even if he wasn't, not really. Nowhere near as ancient as he felt, and he didn't want to do any of this anymore. Kathy was alive, an unspeakable relief, and her hope hadn't been broken. She had been excited to experience the old memories, to try to sift through the seeds of war, the seeds of ZERO, to experience life through the eyes of others who hadn't survived. To relive lives that weren't hers in clips and snippets. To see her mother again, and Wufei had to agree that he did quite miss Sally Po. He missed very many people, and he himself had been worried that if he used the device, he might never be able to drag himself away from it again. He could just sit and watch those recordings, see Sally when the world had been bright and hopeful for him, before she had died. To see Khushrenada at any age in time would have been priceless. The man had never made sense; he wasn't sure the man made sense to Kathy even after walking through his past.

Wufei was just so tired. Tired of himself, tired of people, tired of everything, and now here he was, tucked away in his office with pure temptation staring him in the eye. He had more gear than the viewing system; it went with Mars, with some of the excavations that had paired with the terraforming work. He just... wanted to understand. To truly understand the man, get inside his head.

To see Sally again.

Or maybe even Meiran in his own memories.

He held the device in his hands, turning the helmet over and over again as he thought about it. He had been quite adept at ZERO even before they had modified it. It had never been difficult for him. He could choose so many ways to go if only he wanted.

He already knew what he was going to do, though. He wanted to see what Khushrenada was thinking. At the end of the war, under house arrest, any of it. Things had changed so fast, from leader of the world to man under arrest to leader again like snapping fingers, and with those glimpses before he just -- he needed to understand. It wouldn't bring anyone back to life. It might bring him peace.

Letting out a slow unsteady breath, Wufei raised the helmet and slid it onto his head before thumbing it to life. The first memory was strange, from inside eyes that weren't his own. It was kissing, standing outside at a camping cabin on a bright lit night. He wasn't sure what was going on, wasn't sure how this worked, but he was certain that his body didn't like it. His skin was crawling, and his fists were clenched. It was nothing like any of the kissing Wufei had ever done, and the sudden nausea that it caused was unsettling.

The woman pulled back, looking at him longing, and petted at his hair. "I love you, Ein. I love you so much..." The unwell feeling washed over him more thickly, and he pulled away.

"We should go inside."

That wasn't familiar. It wasn't his voice, and it wasn't deep enough to be Khushrenada's voice, was it? Wufei stumbled forward, pulling away from the hands touching him because he didn't want them on him again. Ever. Or....

He turned to the cabin, and crawled into bed, and the perspective was wrong. Once the scene started to move he realized everything felt too big, and that was disconcerting as the unease and confusion redoubled when the woman who had kissed him pulled the sheet back, and crawled into bed with him. "Oh, Ein."

"Mother, please. I'm very tired."

Oh.

Oh god. Wufei's brain ground to a halt.

He started to look for the controls in the system immediately, too late for his mind, for the index system. That was Treize, a very young Treize, he didn't know how old, he would have to look at the index, and that was molestation if it didn't go to outright rape. That was incest and impossible, because Khushrenada had grown up rich and nothing like that fit in his expectations of the infuriatingly arrogant calm man. Wufei's own family had been extraordinarily loving and none of them ever would have considered doing anything like this, never. So just... just seeing it was appalling and upsetting, and oh god, he had to step away from this.

He took the visor off to stop it and sat back in his desk chair, clutching it close and glad to be out of that moment. Right away, first thing he saw. It didn't excuse anything, but it did provide some... basis for the man's unshakable calm. Not an explanation, but Wufei grappled with his emotions, felt them deeply. He hadn't walled them away, though he wished he had.

God, he wished he had.

He swallowed hard, because the nausea was sticking with him. Who the hell did that? And who was Ein, precisely? Ein Yuy was the obvious answer, but Wufei had no idea of Khushrenada's genealogy. Did he look like him or...? He opened up his datapad, looking for a photo of the man. He was one of so many murdered colony rights activists, attempted politicians, and it was surprisingly hard to find a picture of the man.

But when he did, it was striking. Mostly across the eyes and eyebrows. Those, he would recognize anywhere. It was the spitting image of Treize there, even if the rest of his face didn't seem that familiar at all. The eyes, though, those he recognized, as if the man had cloned his stunning gaze into his child. Treize was the bastard son of a Yuy. It was no wonder he had his mother's name in a culture where that wasn't normal. And then he had been one of the forces putting a boot heel in the colonies' backs -- that just made no sense.

It made his head ache, and Wufei glared at the visor, forehead creased in a frown. What the hell could possibly have happened to have him reach that point? There were sufficient history texts to tell him some things, but they were all the obvious ones. There were even some sensational ones, but he had a feeling none of them had even a meager relationship to the truth.

He needed to find the index file and move forward a little. There might be some key moment in what was going on, in what he had just left, but that felt more like a family tragedy.

Frowning, Wufei laid the visor on the desk and stood. It was late, and he had a headache. He could stay, he supposed, but then he'd still be awake in the morning when everyone else arrived, and Kathy would give him disapproving frowns. Some things, he didn't feel like enduring.

Tomorrow. He would work on it tomorrow.

* * *

The next morning he returned to the office when everyone else was still buzzy with victory and sad about having to do paperwork. It was the post victory letdown, when everyone still wanted to run around in circles and, if Wufei was honest, a large section of his staff seemed not so subtly hungover.

It was an excellent day to cancel all but the morning tasking meeting and then send them on their ways. Particularly since it meant he'd have plenty of time to himself in order to search through the indices to find what he wanted.

Once everyone had parted to their own tasks, Wufei pulled up the primary index for Khushrenada and began his search. Immediate options in the index were later childhood, military academy, lunar base, and Wufei felt his brows draw together in thought. He could jump forward, but at this point he needed to know more. He wanted to see what had happened and how he had managed to deal with the situation with his mother. He had to know what happened, and so he chose later childhood and raised the visor.

He was sitting in the library surrounded by a pile of books -- engineering, history, science, like he was following out a thread for a report. The technological leaps and societal changes that followed war. He didn't know why this was an important memory, and he felt his brow furrow as he looked at the book he was reading.

"You disgusting little bastard," an older man's voice declared, and Wufei felt his head jerk upward in horror and fear.

"I didn't, I didn't have a choice, I tried to tell you..." And apparently the man had a penchant for violence, because the body he was in was recoiling as the memory played, getting to its feet.

"You're filthy. You're a filthy disgusting...." The man's hands were huge, and they were on him, pulling him forward hard, and he couldn't brace himself well enough before he hit the wall. There was a hand in his hair, the fist clenching so that it hurt and a sound broke from his throat, involuntary and stupidly soft.

"Stop, stop! I was protecting Vingt from her! You left us alone with her!" He didn't fight back, but he was struggling to get free, and it was disorienting, as he tried to turn and look into infuriated eyes that were the same color as Dorothy's.

"She's your mother!" That open handed slap stung, made his nose hurt, and the taste of blood and salt immediately sprang to the back of his throat. "You're a little whore, I know about you. Your father was colony trash and so are you." Another slap, then a punch, and he folded in on himself.

"She needs help!" He didn't know how old Treize was, but he sounded young, too young to be having to say any of it. He stayed folded in half, hands pressed against the back of his head as if to protect himself from any more blows.

The next step must have been expected because that fist found its way past his hands and fisted in his hair again, and then he was being dragged forward by his head. "What she needs, you filthy mutt, is for you to be out of this house, and that's what she'll get."

"I don't, please, please leave me alone..." He fought, struggled, legs falling out from under him as the man dragged him out into the hallway as if he were light, as if he weighed nothing.

"I'll leave you alone." That wasn't what he was doing at all, nothing close to it, and Treize stumbled at the stairs, then found himself tripping down them, the marble making him cry out with the pain. "I'll leave you alone after I teach you better, and when we're done, I'll send you to military school! You should have been there already."

In the end he mostly fell down the stairs, and then was dragged into the kitchen. The house was lovely, expensive, as he saw it go by in panicked clips, and Treize was briefly slammed against the door jamb as if the man's rage couldn't be contained. He could hear another child's voice, panicked shouts, and his stepfather yelled that it was nothing, none of his business, to go to his room.

The moment that the door in the kitchen was opened was met with utter panic on Wufei's part; how the histories had even managed to cover all of this was terrifying and deeply confusing. He wondered in a daze if Treize had been as utterly afraid as he was in that moment, and then he heard a jingle and Treize's breath broke on a sob, and Wufei didn't want to be in this memory anymore. He didn't want to be, but he couldn't seem to make it stop.

It was rolling on, and he was up against another door, panicked and sobbing between hits, and then the doors opened, and the fist in his hair shoved him into a tight dark space.

"No, no, no, no, no!"

No, and the door was shut behind him, a _thunk_ sound signifying the cutting off of power or, or something, and Treize (Wufei) curled up, face against his knees, and sobbed.

The space was small and closed and shut off, and everything hurt, his head hurt, and he was in trouble, and nothing made sense. Everything was terrible.

He managed to get the visor off of his head finally, and he could breathe again.

What the fuck.

Wufei rubbed his face, a film of clammy sweat on it. Fuck. Fuck, that was just... that was terrible. That was enough to make him sit back in the chair and feel deeply unwell. He was -- nothing, none of that made sense when he thought of Khushrenada. Wufei always thought of how serene and calm he was when a Gundam broke into his state room on the ship, almost excited. How calm he was when he told Wufei how many people had died for him. Then again, he supposed it was easier to be calm when those things happened when there were such terrible things in his childhood. It didn't make him any easier for Wufei to understand, but it did make Wufei's need to understand much greater.

That left him with a military academy and the lunar base for younger memories; after that it included things like Corsica, 'Vingt', Prince Peacecraft. He knew the indexes were drawn from the memory uploads themselves, but it made him wonder. It gave him a headache, and he reached into his left desk drawer and grabbed a couple of acetaminophen to swallow dry. A glance at the clock on the wall made him scowl because the time that passed was clearly a rough equivalent. Why would anyone upload those particular memories? Why? What had Khushrenada himself wanted known for the record? That his family was terrible? Well, perhaps he did. That was a particular sort of spite, wasn't it? It would be amusing if it weren't insanely horrible. Wufei didn't think it was spite, though. Not really. He thought that perhaps Treize Khushrenada had just wanted someone to understand.

Someone to know everything. That was as good a reason as any to upload the contents of a man's mind into a semi sentient computer system. He had been an enigma, a mystery, even after the history books had finished with him.

It still made Wufei's head hurt. It made the rest of him hurt, too, and Wufei leaned back in his chair, hand rising to rub at his eyes. Fuck. Fuck, why would he have made that an available memory? Why would he want anyone to know? Wufei couldn't imagine giving over that kind of information for anyone. Then again, he'd uploaded his memories of the day Meiran had died, of Mu Tsu dying from the biological weapons that had been used on L5. It wasn't as if he could judge. He didn't want them to be forgotten. He wanted someone to remember when there was no one left to remember in their world, before L5 faded away entirely.

He scrubbed his hands through his hair and sighed, because it had almost made his hair hurt feeling that. Onward, he supposed, but he had more questions than answers. Typical of Treize Khushrenada, the disconcerting ass. Tugging out the tie keeping his hair back, he rubbed his own scalp for a long moment before sighing and lifting the visor again. Might as well dig back into things, he supposed.

When he accessed the next memory, he braced himself for everything short of gang rape, given the first two, and it was a relief to end up dropped into a memory of sitting on a balcony, looking out over a lake. There was an older man sitting beside him, and two glasses of wine. He looked like the stepfather around the eyes but with a finely groomed dark beard.

"Tell me how the first month has been."

"I like it here." The voice coming from him sounded too young still. "The obstacle course last weekend was great. I enjoy... applying books."

"Good, good. Vingt misses you, of course, and Dorothy is utterly furious that I get to see you and she doesn't." The man chuckled. "She will be such a firebrand to the end, don't you think?"

"She will be amazing." He said it with such a heartfelt sincerity that Wufei felt it as deeply as he'd felt the fear. "Do you think I could come home with you for the holidays? I miss Vingt. Is he well?"

Ah, that question clearly made the man a little sad. "I think perhaps we could manage. We're planning to go to Urspelt for Christmas this year, although Hundelt and your mother are planning to stay at the house in Brussels."

He was quiet for a moment, and then said, "She needs to be in a hospital. Not at home. She's not well."

"Mmmm." That hum was purely agreement. "Well. Unfortunately, there is very little that I can do given the situation."

"I know." He took a sip of the wine, not even wincing at the taste. Wufei would have made faces at whatever that age was, but Treize apparently drank and savored wine. "I signed the forms Hundelt wanted for Vingt."

The sigh the man gave was heavy. Wufei was fairly certain it was Chilias Catalonia. He looked only a little like the pictures Wufei had seen, but Chillias had gone grey in the intervening years. "I'm sorry, Treize. I wish there was something I could do to help."

Wufei wanted to yell that there had to be something he could do to help because he was an adult and Treize was probably, looking down at his hands, maybe ten. Maybe older. Wufei didn't know. They were the hands of a child, a child who was drinking and holding an adult conversation.

"Vingt is better for the family. I. I would rather be here." His throat felt tight, and he was looking out over the landscape. There were animals down there, and in the morning they would go running as a formation, and he would see more animals running around in the distance.

Chilias didn't seem to be best pleased from his expression. "I'm happy that you're here, as well, nephew. It's for the best." The hell it was, in Wufei's opinion.

Treize watched the animals in the fading dusk for a moment longer, and sipped at his wine. "Do you think you could help me get my books back?"

"I'll do my best," Chilias promised him. "You're a good boy, Treize, and you'll be a good leader."

"Thank you, sir." He set the empty glass on the table, and looked back at his uncle. "I should go before curfew."

"Have a good night, Treize. I'll see you again soon." A promise, and not necessarily one that comforted Wufei. He didn't know why. It comforted Treize, and he took himself out of the man's quarters and down hallways with newfound familiarity. He stopped into a communal bathroom where there were lockers on the wall, and when he passed a mirror, it gave Wufei a start.

He was a child.

He was just a child, younger than Wufei could remember ever being, younger than he'd been when his father had died, barely old enough to choose his own clothing from day to day, for fuck's sake. He was thin and solemn, and those eyes were far too knowing for his age.

Treize drank a glass of water from the sink, and the memory seemed to fade off, but the eyes stuck with Wufei as he disconnected for a moment to make sure he wasn't missing some unexpected office emergency. Wufei wondered what papers Treize had signed, if it had been legal, if anyone in that family cared about legality. Probably not, and if that thought was sour, well. Why shouldn't it be? He'd certainly been too young for some of the things he'd suffered, but there was too young and there was barely fucking ten years old and being forced to sign legal paperwork.

What the hell had been wrong with those people? And drinking. And being beaten for being molested. It was a wonder he hadn't gone completely off the rails and fallen off the radar of history, because just thinking about it made Wufei want to yell and shout. How had Khushrenada not been consumed with anger?

How had he been so pleased to see Wufei on his yacht? How had he done literally anything? The sheer amount of trauma made Wufei feel guilty because he'd always thought that his own history was tragic and then... there was this.

How had he even functioned well enough to become a general? Even nepotism only went so far. He had outstripped nepotism's reach, even in death. His battle maneuvers were famous, and they were still teaching his techniques in the Preventers. The man had pioneered large scale human piloted maneuvers that specifically damaged morale and equipment. The refinements he had made in ZERO with Epyon were still critical military capabilities and it had been twenty-five years, so he had functioned somehow. Wufei needed better answers. So many more answers, and all he could do was scowl at the visor, at the archives. With a sound of frustration, he stood and walked to the window, hands folding behind his back.

Right. He only had one choice. He was going to have to work on the thing and see if he could further enhance everything and try to find out more than what was actually there. He had worked intimately with Epyon, and everyone had decided it was a reflection of the man's mind. There had been something strange and nebulous about it, something familiar. There had to have been more the man had uploaded into the system. There just had to be. There had to have been something he was thinking when he built the original Epyon, and they had the remnants of it. They had all of it. He could requisition the remnants and take them with him to work on when he wasn't here. Possibly even take a vacation considering that things had settled. He was old enough to retire. He could spend his retirement working on the damned thing until he had answers.

Was that what he wanted to do with his life? Spend it looking for answers from a dead man?

He had already spent most of his life on others -- avenging Meiran, trying to see Kathy through to adulthood, to mentor her. He had done what he could for society at large. So what if he spent the rest of it trying to figure out what Treize Khushrenada had been thinking?

That was no one's business but his own.

* * *

He had not expected for Mariemaia or Anne to attend his retirement ceremony. He hadn't expected anyone to attend, but rather than pulling a runner in the night, there had been a well organized party sprung on him by one of his subordinates.

It had been charming and sweet, and Wufei had to admit that he had been ridiculously grateful when it was all over and he could take himself off to his own home; not the flat he'd kept near the Preventers headquarters on Mars, but a small cottage that was neatly tucked away in one of the rural terraforming platforms for agriculture. It was even more of a relief to be able simply to stay there and see no one. To be left alone with a beautiful view and his equipment. To idle out his years in peace and his sore hips when he stood up too fast, and sleeping in regularly for the first time in too many decades. He hoped the other pilots had similar well-earned feelings of peace. Better than to live with guilt and regret, in any case. They'd all had more than enough of that in his opinion. One way or another, he had time to himself and a sufficient amount of work to do on what was left of Epyon and to go through the memory files Treize had left behind.

There were worse ways to spend his time, he supposed. Drunk and gambling like Maxwell, which made him scowl and sad all at the same time because Duo could have been the best of them. He had so much... Ah. There was no use for it. He couldn't fix his fellow pilots' mistakes, either. He could just tinker with the visor, connecting it to the Epyon system with care. As an artificial intelligence, it would sift and process the data files in a more effective way than the human mind in augmented mode could.

Maybe it would give him some answers, too. He could use a few of those. It wasn't as if it even made any sense, this need to know, only he found that he did want to know. He had to know, and so he began to modify the connection for the visor, slotting in new pieces so that he could safely connect it to Epyon.

He took his time with the work; it required some specialty parts to be made. Nothing about Epyon was standard, and working in its guts showed the original craftsmanship, the modified old Tallgeese replacement parts that made its core. And in some cases, the glaring flaws and mistakes made by Khushrenada.

It was fascinating. Wufei had spent a significant amount of his life building mobile suits himself, and some of the repairs and replacements were honestly inspired. It looked like something he might have done himself, shortcuts that seemed utterly mad but then weren't. The machine was quite frankly beautiful. He wondered how things would have gone if Khushrenada had been an engineer and not a general and politician. It was obvious that he had harbored a natural flair for it and an interest in it.

Eventually, after a couple of solid months of work, Wufei had everything connected. There was no denying that he was supremely proud of himself. It looked like a cobbled together mess in some places, but the machines honestly weren't meant to be compatible in the least. He'd not only had to make up things, he'd had to create them on the spot.

Wufei wasn't sure he'd ever been so proud of a disastrous, tangled mess in his life.

He hoped that if it killed him when he got into the cockpit structure, that when they eventually found his body they understood that, well. It was in keeping with everything else in his life.

Stubborn, determined. Doing just what he wanted to do because it pleased him. Doing it on his own because that was the best way for him. The only way for him. With a sigh, Wufei settled himself in comfortably, drinking the last of the water from the bottle he'd had with him while he worked and then booting the system to full power. He lifted the visor, giving it a critical once over before lifting it and putting it on his head. One more steadying breath, and he flicked the toggle switch into position.

It felt like ZERO. It felt like every time he'd ever used Epyon, except somehow _more,_ harder. It wasn't just a large pool to access information, but he could feel the system working, and that tired him, trying to catch a thread and get it to focus. He wanted to understand how the man thought. He needed to make sense of his own interactions with him.

He needed to know _everything._

And when it hit him, it was like a ton of bricks, a sharp stabbing behind his eyes, and then...

* * *

_"Sir, we've lost radar track of 05."_

It startled him to hear a voice on some small radio because he didn't know where the radio was or how to respond to it. It sounded like Une.

There was no automatic response on this ride along, though he could feel a thrum of adrenaline, a weird almost giddy delight.

_"Sir?"_

What the fuck?

Wufei's brain scrambled desperately for a reply and there was none. "Let him go, Lady," he finally said, because what else was he supposed to say? No one had come after him back then, Wufei was sure of it. Why wasn't Treize's memory coming forward properly?

 _"Sir."_ She sounded.... tight-voiced, disappointed, but the radio clicked off.

Leaving him completely alone in the room. No memory to help him, no automatic action. Holy shit. He was standing there, still holding the sword in his right hand. Wufei's own sword laid on the floor and he walked forward, pulling it out of it and checking the edge. Just as honestly perfect as it had been when his grandfather had made it, although there were now a couple of nicks. He would need to do something about that.

He wondered if Treize had kept it. If he had sharpened it.

Perhaps he had. He looked around the room, found it empty and impersonal. There was a book on the floor by the knocked over coffee table, an old political treatise on colony-Earth relations from the sixties. He needed to find a bedroom, a computer system, something. Figure out what the hell was going on, because nothing about this made any sense to him. He was supposed to be along for the ride, not... whatever this was, and if he happened to be panicking behind his eyes, well. Who wouldn't be? He, the person he was, was somewhere out there in the ocean, mind half shut down with grief and failure and an inability to process the loss. He was not supposed to be there, heading for the door, calmly carrying the spare sword in one hand. He was not supposed to be in charge of making quite literally any decisions whatsoever on the part of an OZ general, or anyone other than himself. And Wufei was fairly certain that he didn't want to be in charge of making any decisions on his own part at this particular moment in time; he'd been damned near suicidal at this point.

His own lack of decision making at the time had been what had saved him. But the metaphorical house was empty except for him as he stepped into the hallway and walked out of the damaged area. The radio on his person chirped to life again. He was starting to think it was built into the collar of his jacket or otherwise somehow on his person. _"Sir. Helicopter is ready. We've received confirmation that Luxembourg is secure."_

"Of course. Thank you." And if that got him a funny look, at least he couldn't see it, and Wufei looked around, trying to figure out which way to go. Out was probably the best answer, and so he placed one hand behind his back and began to walk with purpose.

He couldn't imagine that Treize bothered with luggage, and hopefully he was imagining correctly. He kept the sword in his hand, and walked forward, finding a stairwell that went up and down -- down seemed reasonable given where the room had been in relation to the deck. He also couldn't imagine that Treize would ask for directions even if he'd become irrevocably lost and so he made his way down a flight, then another, and did walk out onto the deck where he was immediately saluted. It felt rather strange, all things considered. Even if he'd been heading the Preventer branch on Mars, he'd never expected that.

He returned the salute because that was what one did, and the body at least seemed to have muscle memory; he'd been carrying the sword in his left hand, and his right hand came up unbidden. There was a helicopter waiting, and he headed for it unerringly. Soon, people would start to ask for answers and orders. He was supposed to have a plan, Khushrenada clearly had a plan.

Perhaps he had written it down somewhere.

That idea was laughable, but Wufei needed to be alone before he could try to disconnect himself again. Try being the operative word, and he wasn't going to think about that and start to panic. There was no point. None at all. It had never done anyone any good.

The flight was quiet, doubly so by the noise cancelling headphones that were saving his hearing. The man was often left to his own devices, or the other people on the flight were unwilling to bother him. He wondered if Treize broke the ice with his subordinates, how friendly he usually was with them. Wufei couldn't imagine that the answer was very, but he had been born into an entirely different culture, and had been raised by a family that loved him and would never have sent him away to military school before he'd even been ten.

Perhaps he was passingly friendly. It was just... hard to guess. Wufei simply didn't know the man, except that he had put those memories into the system to be known. Khushrenada wanted someone to know him, or he wanted to preserve his memories because, probably, no one else knew.

So Wufei remained quiet as the flight landed; he took his headphones off after the landing, and one of the men leaned in close to quietly tell him that there seemed to be a problem with the lightning count.

Whether he was called Zechs Marquise or Mirialdo Peacecraft, he was obviously an utter pain in the ass. Wufei had nothing else to say about that, all things considered. "Thank you," Wufei murmured, because what else could he possibly say? Wufei wondered if it made him a bad person to consider the possibility that if Marquise died now, war on Mars wouldn't have found its way into such a disastrous state. There would be no madness with clones and Noin's brother pretending to be him. The world had too many versions of the man, and just the one Khushrenada left. And Mariemaia had gone into whale research, of all things.

They were in a military compound, but out beyond he could see green mountains to one side and broad ocean off in the distance on the other side. Hawaii, Wufei guessed, and turned to take in all of it. Pearl Harbor, he thought, and if he hadn't been something of a history nerd, he wasn't sure he'd have known that.

He needed time to himself to figure out what the hell was going on and he didn't know how to ask for it.

Did Treize ask or did he simply say?

"Sir? Your car is ready. I have the latest numbers for you." Another aide, perhaps, because the man sidled up and only briefly saluted.

"Of course. Thank you." He'd just have to go along with all of it as best he could and hope to god no one noticed how odd he was being. There weren't exactly any other choices available to him.

* * *

It was possible a piece of the roof had fallen and hit his head because of the vibrations of the Gundam dropping off his damaged ship. That was the only reason for him to find himself in a somewhat familiar cockpit while taking off a visor that was distinctly unfamiliar. How that might explain the hands holding the visor, that was anyone's best guess. Last he had checked, his hands had been distinctly larger and more pale. Possibly it had hit him on the head or possibly he'd just gone insane.

The hands were older as well, and he studied them for a moment before opening the cockpit -- Tallgeese style, so that was something remarkable and it boded well. He hoped. Treize was quite obviously in a workshop, but there was an open door so he headed for it, glancing around everywhere. There was no one there, no one to tell him what was going on, but exploring couldn't hurt, and then he realized he wasn't on Earth because nothing looked even remotely like it.

The sky was blue, but it was a weird dusky blue, and the terrace he was standing on was too structured. The land looked... oh, there was a house outside of the shed where the cockpit and chest piece had been. That was excellent. That meant there would be a bathroom and a mirror, and so he walked toward it, legs feeling too short and wrong, left knee aching in a way that his own hadn't, and he scowled. That, at least, felt like a natural expression on his face.

The house was unlocked, tidy and the design was something old fashioned, like a farm house or an old cottage back on Earth. He looked down at his hands again, and then started to open and close doors looking for a bathroom. He finally found a bathroom off of the kitchen, and was confronted by a face the second he flicked on the lights.

Chang Wufei, older and frowning, appeared in the mirror, and Treize didn't bother denying the urge he had to turn and look behind him even if he knew it was preposterous.

He pulled a grimace and the face in the mirror grimaced at him and what the hell. What the hell. The formerly young man seemed much older, much much older, and it was striking to see him again when he'd just -- he'd just dueled him. He'd, he needed to find out more information, he needed to work out what was going on. The whole thing made his head spin, because why did he look like Wufei? Why did he look like Wufei who was a good two decades older than Treize remembered?

The entire thing was heavy in his chest, and he didn't know what to do about any of it.

Treize took a deep breath, and then decided to handle it methodically, like he always had. Find all possible information and then make a decision.

He started where he stood. There was an electric razor, one toothbrush. There was a bathtub, shampoo, soap, moisturizer, and very little by way of fancy toiletries. That was a shame; Treize rather liked cologne, oils, sunscreen. His uncle had once told him that fighting and being outdoors would do a lot of damage, and no one wanted to look like Tsubarov when they grew up, did they?

He crouched down, knee protesting and oh, never mind, the man was just tidy. There was bubble bath, which made him smile, and a pile of books under the sink. There was possibly a medicine cabinet behind the mirror, and a quick tug revealed that was so. There were a few things there, an extra tube of toothpaste, a few different sorts of general painkillers and a bottle that directed it be taken daily with food. Blood pressure medicine, maybe? He could only imagine that it was. He'd have to assume that it had already been taken for the day, and would have to remind himself to take the medication on a schedule once he figured it out. He set that on the edge of the sink so he didn't forget. That was a start.

He bypassed the kitchen and the sitting room to rummage the bedroom. There would be photos or... something. Personal items, a logbook perhaps. Workbooks ended up in bedroom closets. There would at least perhaps be a calendar on a wall.

What he did find were a couple of datapads (neither of which he was able to get into at first go), a number of leather bound journals which were clearly personal that covered a range of years, and a number of private items in the nightstand which he generally expected to find in pretty much anyone's bedroom.

He took the datapads and the journals with him as he headed into the sitting room, which seemed to be more of a workshop at the same time as maybe being an office. The feeling was wrong for entertaining guests. The feeling of the whole place was wrong for that, to be honest. Everything had a place and was in its place except for the scattering of items across a desk in one corner that seemed to be an ongoing project. Frowning, he stepped up to them, touched them, and they felt... they felt familiar or perhaps like something he had seen before. Treize didn't know.

The build was familiar, like the cockpit, he decided. He started to look for paper or something he could use. Otherwise he was down to journals and trying to get into the data pads. Not even family photos out in the open, so Wufei was a guarded man.

There were a number of books along the walls, shelves neatly lined, organized by author and then by title, for the most part, although some were clearly organized by story order. He found other journals there, but it turned out these were new and empty, probably ready for whenever he ran out of space in the current one. At the very least, he could sacrifice one of those to his notes, most likely.

He grabbed the bottommost one, and settled behind the desk with it, the datapads, the journals. He started with the first journal in the order, pen in hand to make notes in the blank one. At the very least, he might well learn something about the pilot himself, and Treize certainly hoped that would be the case. He'd been quite taken with him the second that he had come after Treize's yacht, so taking the time to know him now would be almost a delight.

Whatever was going on was or was not time sensitive, but he didn't know the slightest about what was going on, so he might as well be calm about it. Then the datapad rang, and he answered it out of habit, because that was how one made them stop ringing. Was that... was that Major Sally Po on the screen? _"Uncle Wufei, honestly. You haven't answered the last two calls I made!"_

The screen had unlocked for his face, of all things, and he was unable to suppress his excitement as he smiled at the young woman. If Wufei was old, how was he Sally's uncle? A child of hers, then. "I've been busy working on my project. How are you?" She was in an unfamiliar uniform, and there was a P on the shoulder.

_"Fretting about you now that you've taken yourself off to the other side of Mars to be a hermit. The terraforming isn't even fully finished out there. You're lucky the atmosphere shields are, for goodness sake. Aunt Iria said I need to check and be sure you're taking your blood pressure properly and regularly. I know how you are."_

"I just checked how much I have in the bottle a minute ago. It's fine." It did not surprise him that Chang Wufei had blood pressure problems, nor that the man was a hermit on Mars. He did have people who loved him enough to call, which was something nice, Treize supposed as he watched the girl's face. So they had terraformed Mars. How long did terraforming take? They'd been predicting forty, forty-five years, but they'd also had that massive algae spill in the late eighties, and perhaps that had moved it all along. What did he say to that to find out more?

 _"You always say it's fine,"_ he was told with a dark expression, _"and I know you're an excellent liar. So I'll be by a week from today to check it myself and bring you supplies."_

He sighed, feigning that he was being put upon, because he thought that might feel right. So, he had a week before the jig was up; or a week in which to become a much better actor.

It did make him wonder where Wufei had gone, if he was there. Was Wufei back in him, back on the yacht? Damn.

"I've really been doing fine. No stress, nothing to do but tinker."

 _"I saw that you had the remnants of the original Epyon sent to your workshop. What is it that you expect to find, do you think?"_ She seemed honestly curious.

Oh, that was remarkable, and he looked to the workshop almost reflexively. "I don't know. Answers. I still don't understand everything."

That was breathtakingly remarkable. His Gundam. Chang Wufei had his Gundam, and he was dead.

_"Well if that's what you're waiting for, Uncle Wufei, I can't expect that you won't be waiting a while longer. The man was incomprehensible, even if you've been granted extra memories that aren't commonly available."_

He wanted to pump his fist in the air. He wanted to shout in victory, because it had worked. It had been a harebrained idea he had diagrammed out and it had _worked_. He didn't know how he'd done it, or when he had decided he was going to allow Wufei to see extra... extra. Oh. "How did you know that?"

The girl on the screen shrugged. _"I've known you my entire life, Uncle Wufei. I saw the look on your face."_ Then she seemed to look a bit sheepish. _"And I could see that the data core had allotted quite a lot of extra space when you started tinkering with the memories."_

So she had seen some and Wufei had seen something different. Treize leaned an elbow on the table, still holding the datapad. "There were details about his family that he would not have wanted in history books. I don't know why they were there." Or why he had thought of putting them into the system, but that had to be it. There had to be a show version and a real version because that was how things were.

No one ever thought of General Khushrenada struggling. Or that the Catalonia family had possibly gilded the lily in their official documents and statements.

 _"So long as you're happy, I'm happy,"_ the girl replied. _"We're doing quite well here, even if you aren't here to tell us what to do."_ She was quite clearly teasing him.

He let himself smile a little, because if she teased him and called him then she got some kind of response. Logically. "You all needed room to grow." So Wufei had been her uncle, or her 'uncle' and the boss. Of whoever the Ps were.

She laughed and it sounded lovely. _"Of course that's what you'd say."_ So at least he'd gotten that part right.

He hoped Wufei had had a happy life, after the war, that he had lived widely, and enjoyed himself. What happened on L5 had been... disturbing. Wrong, it shouldn't have been that way, and he wondered if he had explained that anywhere in the data he had left in Epyon. "You will be great leaders, all of you. Even the slackers. It's time for the old guard to step down."

That earned him another laugh. _"Yes, I know, Duo told me that you threatened him. As if he meant anything by saying he prefers older women. Honestly."_

He was decidedly starting to get in over his head. If he didn't think it would bring her sooner, he was half tempted to fake a fire in the workshop. "He needed threatening."

 _"You would say that."_ Then, thank god, thank every god, someone seemed to get her attention. _"Right. I have a meeting, but I'll see you soon. Don't be surprised if I call to check on you in a couple of days, either."_

"I'll answer if I'm not in the workshop." He lifted a hand in a wave, hoping it was good enough for the video call. "Don't worry."

 _"I always worry; I love you,"_ he was informed, and then she blew him a kiss. _"See you soon."_ And then, thank god, the call finished.

He had the datapad unlocked and in his hand, though, and that felt like some kind of a miracle because he was still reliant on quickly tapped passcodes or on some of the more secure systems, retinal scans, which were ridiculous to the extreme. He started by hitting the clock in the corner to see what year it was.

It was a shock to the system to realize that it was twenty-two years later than it should be. He had been dead for twenty-two years.

That was a long time to be a corpse, and to only just now have people rummaging in his memories. Surely a lot had happened; he wondered who else had lived, other than obviously Wufei and Sally Po. He had held a soft spot for her since she'd helped falsify the documents assuring everyone L5 was wiped out, and it wasn't as if his Specials had cared either way. Was Zechs alive? Une? The other pilots? It was an unparalleled opportunity to see how everyone had lived on after him, and now he had access to the datapads, so it was clearly time to find out everything he could.

Three hours later, he leaned back in Wufei's chair and let out an unsteady breath.

Christ.

That had been remarkably horrible, and he didn't want to look at it anymore.

That had not been a peace to last through the ages. His actions, as laid out in numerous articles and quick clips, had lasted exactly one year to the day, when Dekim Barton had wrecked the peace and caused the deaths of thousands. With, apparently, the daughter he didn't know about as a figurehead. He was good at rough orders of magnitude, even if he hadn't gone deep yet, but wide. The most recent uprising, one of fifty since the Eve Wars where he'd died, which were large enough to make the bigger news sources, had led to the death of an estimated ten thousand. Easily. A hundred here, a hundred there, a crashed vehicle into a city center there, displacement, sickness, famine. economic instability quickly patched over by Dorothy and her government in the Earth sphere, allied with Mars, but...

It made his head hurt. He needed a break and food. Something had gone terribly wrong with his plan. Obviously it hadn't been the right plan. He'd been so sure, so absolutely certain, and it was apparent that had been wrong.

So wrong that his brain stalled as he wandered into the kitchen and stared into the refrigerator, mostly because he wasn't familiar with any of the things in it. Still. Vegetables were vegetables and meat was meat. There was definitely something that looked to be for sandwiches, so he began to pull things out, sniffing jars and trying not to think.

Once he figured out what was going on out there with the visor and his Gundam, he would start trying to see if he could put the world right. For now....

For now, he was making a sandwich.

* * *

Zechs Marquise had attacked the Alliance base at Sanc and nearly killed himself.

It was deeply unfortunate that he hadn't. Wufei wouldn't be so lucky -- of course he wouldn't. The world just wasn't set up that way. Zechs was in the hospital, because he was clearly... Well. He disliked the man from his interactions with him over the years in the Preventers. He was confusing and narcissistic and completely unprepared to rule anything bigger than a cage of mice, and Wufei wasn't sure the mice would have survived him. He very likely had a terrible upbringing, which was the exact opposite of preparing him for the sorts of roles he had taken on later in life.

At least Relena had been a natural leader, and cautious except where Heero was concerned.

But the Tallgeese had done to Marquise what it had done to Meiran, without the additional damage of explosions involved. It wreaked havoc on internal organs; it was a machine that was impossibly hard on the body. The fact that Treize Khushrenada had fought him in such a dangerous fucking thing made his suicidal tendencies even more obvious.

Well. That and living life as him, because sweet fucking hell, when did the man actually manage to get any sleep? Wufei wasn't sure how he managed it because it made him cranky, and the body he was in was awake at an ungodly hour, which didn't help.

Muscle memory and another twenty years of experience were the only things keeping him going. He was healthy, fit. He went for water dutifully, and there always seemed to be a cup of coffee at his elbow when the staff were around, pitch black and sweet. It made sense that the man's toothpaste seemed to be industrial strength. His staff seemed devoted, and Wufei wished he understood why.

The man's personal datapad had a number combination locking it, which felt impossibly old but then Wufei remembered _when_ he was. Fucked if he thought he'd ever figure out what the code was, but that was another thing about muscle memory. If he just didn't think about it, his fingers let him in all the same. It turned out to be his brother's birthdate, and that did make things a bit easier for Wufei to remember.

Khushrenada was low key obsessed with his dead brother; there was a photograph, an actual one, in the suitcase that just seemed to magically show up in every base they went to. It seemed to be they were hopping their way back to Europe across the newly conquered OZ Pacific and caucuses theatres. There were speeches in the datapad, and Treize met with remaining base commanders, some former Alliance turncoats, some OZ.

There was no plan outlined for him to follow, per se, but the man had an intel database on every active ranking officer, networked to their family, their family's ties, and _their_ ties and alliances. Their weaknesses, their interests, friction points, who worked well together and who didn't, performance metrics if they were in OZ. Battle records.

No sign of the database of those that had died in his name, though. But he had left enough information behind that Wufei thought he could keep his head above water. Or at least fake it long enough to do something about it.

Wufei was sitting at his desk, working his way through one of the databases and goggling at some of the side interests (at least two OZ officers had regular appointments with a dominatrix known as Madame I. Adler, and those were some of the tamer dirty secrets he'd found) because they were rather impressive. If one meant horrifyingly embarrassing to Wufei's way of thinking. Who wanted to be hung upside down and have their dick whipped? Not him. But it could be useful information, Wufei supposed. He was fairly sure Treize didn't get his dick whipped. The man had scars here and there, but nothing that indicated gross deviance of a physical nature. His brain was clearly grossly deviant, to have deftly plotted the overthrow of the world government, with or without allies.

A knock came at the door, and Wufei jumped in reaction. It felt stupid, but it was just there, and impossible to keep from doing it. He was unaccustomed to anyone knocking at his door. Even as head of the Mars branch of Preventers, no one had knocked. They had always called first, mostly because he _did_ have that immediate jumping reaction and he'd spent a long time trying to hide it. "Come."

"Your Excellency." It was Une, stepping in and closing the door behind her. "How are you feeling?"

"Just fine, Lady. Busy, as I'm sure you can tell." Wufei thanked every benighted god in the world that he'd spent so much time watching the man's speeches so that he could at least fake his general cadence.

"We're on to Corsica tomorrow for a few days. Before you head back to Luxembourg." She stepped further into the room, a nervous edge to her movements. "I have everything in place for the transport trap."

"Excellent work. Thank you, Lady." Wufei hoped to god he wasn't fucking anything up beyond comprehension.

If anyone wanted any more detail than he was capable of giving, he was going to have to fake a stroke or something and hope it didn't butterfly effect the world. She came closer to the desk, and leaned a hand on it as she stood beside it. "I wondered if you might want to relax tonight, sir."

"I have plans," he murmured. Wufei's brow furrowed. "Considering how Marquise's day went. I need to figure out how to work on the mechanics for that mobile suit to make it less dangerous."

"The engineers will work on that in Corsica. If we can get it transported there. Shame it killed Otto, he was an excellent officer." Her hand lingered on the table and she stepped closer. Perhaps she had a file to hand him.

He looked up. There was no file.

Wufei could almost hear the record scratch of his brain going sideways when he realized her uniform jacket was unbuttoned, revealing a fine lawn undershirt that definitely showed far too much for his comfort. He was fairly certain that his jaw dropped in horror. Dear god. Anne, his boss, his former boss, was coming onto him. Or. Well. Not him, but also him?

Fuck.

What.

If he put it in context, Treize was a very very good looking man. He exercised regularly, he was handsome, he was hung, he had a solid, functional musculature that no one would be ashamed of. But. But it was Anne. "Perhaps a glass of wine or two after dinner tonight?"

Behind Treize's eyes, Wufei's brain stalled like an engine whose various cylinders had lost compression and therefore couldn't turn over or get started. Fuck. "I'm afraid not, Lady. I," and here he fumbled for a reply, blinking, "have a bit of a headache."

Which was the stupidest excuse he had ever given for anything.

"Oh." She recovered smoothly, but he could hear it in her voice, even if she was still lingering. "I'll have aspirin brought down. Would you like a bath drawn?"

"Yes, please, Lady." Because obviously that was something that she did for Treize. Probably. He was definitely going to find out, anyway. He hoped to god they didn't have sex regularly. Wufei was certain that he couldn't do that, particularly since he rather liked Giancarlo, whom she'd married a good decade or more ago. Or... in the future.

Whichever.

She did have a _type,_ though, didn't she? Now that he thought about it, the man had a similar sort of build, a similar sort of calm public face. No, he wasn't going to think about it at all. She drew away, so it must have been the right answer to give. Holy shit.

His brain was definitely shutting down on all of that. He'd be useless for the rest of the afternoon.

Wufei needed to find a way to... to get out of the situation he was in, or if nothing else, make it more bearable. He remembered a lot about how the war went down, though he didn't personally remember all of these OZ actions because he'd been intent on killing them. Their behind the scenes games hadn't mattered so much to him before.

Clearly he'd been fucking stupid. Next time, he would pay more attention to all of it, which sounded preposterous and probably was. He would not think about the fact that he might end up killing himself in a handful of months and would never actually have the opportunity to pay more attention.

There was also the option just to... keep the man from throwing himself onto his weapon. Not to be caught off guard. There were no hints that the man was deeply suicidal just then, but there had been no hint of it at the time. Surely there had been past incidents. Maybe Une had seen them, or Zechs. It didn't come from nowhere. "Sooner rather than later with the bath, I think, Lady." Especially if it meant that she went away, which he would appreciate greatly.

"Of course." That got her to leave, and she was smiling a little, as if this was perfectly normal and acceptable, and then he was still there, trapped on the wrong side of the mirror, it felt like. It was funny, he had wanted to understand how the man had thought, and he still had no better idea.

With a hefty sigh, Wufei relaxed, entire body going loose as he placed his head on Treize's desk and resisted the urge to beat his head against it. It would do absolutely no good if someone heard it and came to see what was happening.

He needed to read and prepare himself, because he knew from the calendar that he was preparing not just for the next phase of his plan -- movement to the colonies once the alliance was secured -- but to spend time intimately socializing with terrible people as prelude to some political bullshittery and more speeches. Some of whom Wufei had 'socialized' with as a Preventer, and they were still terrible then.

Perhaps he could convince them to take some job other than whatever particular one made him feel like such a lunatic. If he were incredibly lucky.

He knew damned well that he wouldn't be. He never had luck like that.

The trouble was that he didn't know what the man had been up to in the depths of the war. He had surfaced now and then, but what was in Luxembourg? What... Oh. Epyon. Perhaps that accounted for some of his missing time, and that wasn't such a terrible thing as socializing with complete bastards. It also likely wouldn't involve Anne trying to sleep with him, which was frankly terrifying.

He threw up a thought to any ancestor or deity that might be paying attention and sighed. Hopefully he'd survive at least until something more terrible happened. Hopefully Kathy would visit before his body gave out on him and pull the visor, maybe get him back to himself. If he didn't answer his calls, then rescue was imminent, because she had joked about _people like him_ who died as soon as they retired, and she did care.

With a sigh, Wufei sat up and went back to work, closing out things he'd been dealing with so that he could have the bath Anne was having drawn. At least the man seemed to be a hedonist, as every place he'd been had moisturizers and bath oils and a subtle cologne that Wufei would never be able to forget again, tobacco and leather and something. Roses.

He might as well take the time to enjoy it.

* * *

It was a science experiment gone wrong.

It was a brilliant, somewhat stupid science experiment, the kind Treize enjoyed himself, but he wasn't able to get it to do whatever it had done to land him there. There were circuits that were burnt out, and parts he had already ordered, but would have to wait on. That was somewhat frustrating, but Wufei had money and access, so he knew he was going to receive them.

It was just a matter of patience, which had never been his favorite of things. Treize was, however, spectacularly good at it. He'd learned how to wait no matter how much he hated it, and had also learned to keep himself busy in the meantime.

He read. He read histories and Wufei's books and tried to get himself ready for Kathy to visit. He read old emails, perused Wufei's journals, and worked out how to use the rice cooker without the countertop ending up covered in sticky water.

The man lived a quiet, lonely life. It made Treize feel... well. Sad probably wasn't the right word, but it was close. He hoped for better for Chang Wufei. Not that he'd known precisely who he was before he got out of his Gundam, he had to admit, but still. Finding himself in the other man's body certainly had a great deal to do with it. He must rattle about this place in the silence far too frequently. Treize was tired of it and it had only been a few days.

He had ended up propping the datapad up against a glass bowl, playing music off of it while he attended to tasks like keeping himself fed or bathing while he waited for the radio he'd ordered to arrive. Who didn't even have a radio or speakers in their home?

But he did have to admit that he enjoyed the man's bed. In every way imaginable. The bed was wide and pillow topped, sufficiently soft and supportive, and there were some rather enjoyable items in the nightstand drawers.

A man did, after all, have needs.

And if Kathy were visiting to stay in the guest room, he needed to be on best behavior, because he couldn't quite imagine Wufei masturbating with a guest in the small cottage.

Which was how he found himself just giving up on the day to enjoy himself. He decided to start with a nice warm bath, looking at Wufei in the mirror while it ran. He was older, yes, by a good two decades. His hair was still dark, although it now held a few streaks of white. His skin was nice, with very few wrinkles. His body was nothing to sneeze at, either, slim still, shoulders broad, and he had quite obviously been active for the last two decades. Left knee aside, the rest of him was in fine fettle.

Treize took his time familiarizing himself with the body, idly thumbing a nipple. Oh he had definitely felt up the new body a few times in bed, in an idle interesting way, but not deliberately, not with any purpose. He hoped once they got it all sorted that Wufei wouldn't mind. Or that they would eventually get it all sorted, because otherwise it was going to be his for the rest of however long he had.

He might as well have the pleasure of it being his for the time being. He'd certainly had a few thoughts about the way he'd moved when he'd invaded Treize's yacht, all smooth movements and vicious thrusts of his sword. Who wouldn't have had a few thoughts about it, after all? He was strong and graceful and one of the most alluring things Treize had seen in a while. He was still a gorgeous man twenty years later. Someone should have taken the opportunity to grow old with him, because there was something unspeakably delightful about nipples that still pebbled like marbles.

He was just about to start the bath when he realized he heard an incoming helicopter or something of that nature. Dear god, he hadn't considered that she might come in anything other than an auto, although he supposed he should have done. He hadn't noticed any roads, in particular, he just hadn't thought of it. How disappointing that he wouldn't have time to enjoy a bath.

He grabbed a towel to wrap around himself so he could step from the bathroom back to the master bedroom, where he had laid out two nice looking dildos and the lube. Back into the bedside drawer they went, and he'd just have to take advantage of himself later.

By the time he'd pulled on trousers and a shirt, there was a knock on the front door. "Uncle Wufei! I'm here with your supplies!"

He hurried barefoot to the door, and then took a moment to compose himself before he opened the door. "Kathy, it's very good to see you!"

Kathy eyed him with a certain amount of suspicion. "That is not your normal greeting," she informed him.

He tried not to respond, wondering just what Wufei would have said instead. Fuck. He was going to wreck this like a Specials sergeant with his first sports car, bought on an inadvisable loan. "This hasn't been a normal week."

"That abnormal?" The suspicion just seemed to increase, and she handed him a bag, and then another. "I've brought the almond milk. Don't fuss at me about not bringing you ice cream, you know what that does to you."

"They make almond milk ice cream." They had back on Earth, but he accepted it as he stepped back to let her come in. He was absolutely going to blow this, hands down.

She rolled her eyes. "Yes, and you complained that it was all chocolate last time, unerringly found your way to the pistachio almond ice cream I had in the fridge, and spent the rest of the day miserable and trying to hide the fact that you were suffering from the lactose."

That was a more familial relationship than Treize thought he had ever had in his life. He gave a put upon sigh, and took the bags to the kitchen to put away. He had worked out Wufei's organizational system, and he would be able to at least continue to mimic it. "How hard is it to make pistachio almond ice cream out of almond milk? The almonds are already there."

"You say that every time."

Oh, thank god he'd gotten at least something right. It was sufficient to make him grateful, for the moment. Maybe he would manage this, after all. "I'll say it until the stores are less stupid." Wufei was firm, determined; that much was clear from his emails and journal. "I'm making sticky rice with sausages for dinner. When did you eat?"

It surprised him a bit when the bags she was holding fell to the floor and there was a gun in her hand, one that was pointed at him. "Who are you and what did you do with my uncle?"

Fuck. Treize could play it off, but she came from a world of robot clones and people impersonating other people. He turned a little, slowly, hands out to the sides to show that he wasn't holding anything more dangerous than the apparent jar of peanut butter she had brought Wufei. "Wufei's experiments with Epyon didn't... work the way he wanted them to."

"Do tell." She didn't lose sight of him, but it was clear that she was waiting for someone to show up from one of the other rooms from the way she shifted, getting her back against the wall next to the door.

Smart girl. Very smart girl, he wished all of his soldiers were so tactically minded. "I can't imagine he purposefully set out to swap bodies with me, unless he wanted to change the conduct of the war."

That did seem to catch her attention. "Treize Khushrenada?" It wasn't actually meant as a question, he didn't think. "You can't be serious."

"I am, unfortunately. I wasn't sure how long I could pull this off. You're a very perceptive young woman." He kept his hands still in a neutral, visible position, though he set the peanut butter on the countertop.

"Uncle Wufei is expecting me to bring supper with me. It's a treat." She didn't seem to be letting her guard down entirely, but she did narrow her gaze. "What's the birthdate of Vingt Catalonia Khushrenada?"

"A.C. 157, May 13th." Why was that especially an identifier that it was him, it was... unless someone had wiped him from the records. It left him feeling chilled. "Why, have they gone so far as to move their graves?"

"What? No. But who else would actually be able to spit that out?" she reasoned, slowly lowering her gun. "Fine. So Uncle Wufei managed to somehow... swap himself out with you?"

"I came to in the half destroyed mobile suit torso he's got hiding in the shed. I'll show you. It blew every capacitor it had, so I've ordered parts." Hands still in a neutral position, he stepped forward slightly.

"All right." She didn't take her hand off of the firearm, though. "Show me."

He made an amused noise, as he moved to lead the way, mildly respectful to her gun. "If you kill me, I think we'll both be trapped where we are. I can't imagine he's pleased with the situation. I had just beaten him in a duel, and now I'm here and I find out all of it was... in vain."

Kathy at least looked sympathetic. "Because we're still fighting," she murmured, and yes. That was precisely why.

"Worse than I could have imagined," he added. "I did just what Vingt did -- something that made everything worse, only I couldn't see it in the moment. He couldn't see it then." He stopped outside the shed door, opened it and stepped in. "We're fools."

"You're human," she murmured, stepping in behind him. "You realize that I have absolutely no idea when your brother was born."

"He only ruled the earth sphere badly for nine years, of course you don't." He sucked in a deep breath. "No one knows mine, either." He had left the cockpit open, and reached for the visor. "This is not the control helmet that belongs with Epyon."

"No, that's the memory visor for the latest incarnation of the consciousness download device. We've used it numerous times, I can't imagine what he could have done to make this happen." She frowned, taking it in hand to inspect.

“He's routed it through Epyon, I assume to apply Epyon's refined algorithms to it while he uses it. O that's what would happen, except it has blown every capacitor on the boards, and there is... just a great deal to repair. None of it is powering up correctly." He leaned back so she could get into the useless cockpit if she so wished. "It's a shame I gave it to Yuy. I would have liked to take it into battle."

"Hm, if you would have liked to pilot that, I can only imagine what you'd think about Nataku." She was frowning at the circuits, checking behind everything. "Honestly, I can't follow what he was doing here. Hoping to increase the output somehow doesn't seem... quite right."

"He made notes. You were right, I had apparently given him access to personal memories that I didn't think needed to be more widely shared." He stayed out of her light. If he was malicious he could have slammed the cockpit door on her. "What... Do you know what passed between Wufei and me that I decided to leave him that information?"

Kathy huffed out a breath. "That, I think, would be something that he would consider intensely personal. It's his nature. So he wouldn't ever have told me about it, or anyone else, I expect."

It left him to sigh, because of course. "It hasn't happened yet. Or it just happened. Or just started, I can't tell." He leaned a hand on the torso, looking to the shed exit. "I've ordered all the parts I'll need to fix this, I think. He made very good notes at the onset, but I think he was getting down to a machine gun technique at the end."

"That's how he gets," she agreed. She leaned back and looked at him, biting her lip. "I don't think I should leave you alone with what is, ostensibly, my godfather's body."

Clearly he should have started fuck around hedonism day one day sooner. And it should have involved alcohol. "Why not? He's currently unsupervised with mine in the middle of a war."

"Yes, and I've known him since I was born," she advised with an arch expression. "You I've known through history texts and twenty minutes of conversation."

"And my memories. You were in them. That's better than a history text." He arched an eyebrow at her. "You're in for a dull few weeks if you decided to babysit me."

"Weeks?" Her own brows rose. "I can get the supplies sooner if you can tell me what they are." She paused. "And you were extremely precise as to the memories available to most people. I haven't seen anything that you wouldn't have put in a history text."

He grimaced slightly, drumming fingers on the torso, because according to Wufei's notes the things available to Kathy had not been so palatable as that. "Moral standards have clearly changed if we're now openly discussing incest in history books."

Kathy looked at him, expression solemn and a little sad. "Those were the memories you left behind," she offered gently. "And you weren't here anymore to fret over it."

He couldn't imagine where his head had been when he'd done it. He was willing to admit that he struggled with... everything sometimes, that routine and accountability kept him going most days. It was the last day of May; somewhere between June and December he had suffered so many losses that he had given away his mobile suit and sought death eagerly, more so than usual. "Oh. Oh, the dates. The dates. He synced us by finding a memory on the day it happened in the past. It's the end of May, he must have pulled up the duel on the day it happened."

"So this could have happened to anyone?" She definitely sounded appalled. "I've never known the device to do anything like that before now!"

He sighed, and leaned his forehead against the cool metal. "Anyone who grafted it directly into the original Epyon system where the memories were uploaded. That's a very small definition of anyone."

"Because there's only one man who'd be able to pull it off," she agreed, and sighed. "Of course."

"Out of curiosity. How many Epyon systems are currently out there?" He stayed where he was, thinking. Date, so if time was moving the same in the past and the present, then he was coming up to a bit of a lull and then everything went to complete shit. According to the history books.

She shook her head. "There's only two systems capable of using the Epyon system. The one here that was being used against us, and Nataku. It's capable of using both Eypon and ZERO systems."

"Could be useful for parts. We might need to wait to sync times again, and I'm considering what I might have considered shareable if I were desperate and depressed." Well, that was further than he'd gotten before. "I'll be in the house making notes."

"We might as well both go in and eat supper first," she advised, "since it's probably cold already."

"I finally worked out how to use his rice cooker without looking like a complete ass," he muttered, stepping out of the shed and waiting for her. "And it was still the wrong answer."

And if she laughed at him, well, it didn't feel personal.

* * *

Wufei was beginning to understand the hedonistic bathing habits Treize Khushrenada had. There were ridiculous step-in baths at every single base they'd stopped at, and taking a good hour long bath certainly helped with all of the stress.

It made brilliant sense, and it was usually in a well appointed room with a view and privacy at the same time. It was very soothing, and they often had pressure jets. The bath in Corsica was ridiculous; it was embedded in what he thought was a temple, and the view overlooked rolling hills, blue water, and ruins that dotted the edge of the base.

Wufei wondered how long Treize might spend in the bath. He probably didn't spend as long as Wufei did, at a guess, but he at least knew what the hell he was doing in a day-to-day capacity, which was a lot more than Wufei knew. Wufei was just trying to puppet along, trying not to completely ruin his own future. But then again, with so much interest in tubs, he might very well spend that much time in them. He had a wonderfully muscled body, and it was hard not to... just touch a little.

Wufei had never held a cock that size. It was different than his own, thicker, and it leaned more to the right than the left. The experience was wildly different, possibly because he mostly spent his time stroking over thighs and belly as much as anything else, because he liked the feel of those, too.

The muscles were wonderful under his fingers, responsive, sensitive, and the body felt a little weird to him, so it made it... more. Like somehow someone else was doing it because he could feel the touch but it wasn't quite his own hands. The feedback was too different.

More enjoyable. Hands and fingers everywhere, but playing with that cock was quite frankly bliss. It was so very different, and once he was in his bath with its delightful bubbles and scented oil, well. He quite frankly couldn't stop himself. He'd enjoyed Treize's body on a frankly appallingly frequent basis.

Thank god he'd never meet him again, or he'd die of mortification.

No one ever had to know how much he enjoyed the feeling of it in his hands, thick and full, the way it sent a spark up the base of his spine and made his balls ache. He could just fondle himself slowly, enjoyably, for the better part of his bath. Wufei would rise, still hard, wrap himself up in a thick and fuzzy robe, and then dry himself in his bedroom, only finishing himself off when he was sprawled bonelessly on the wide bed, a few tissues catching the spend. It did seem to do quite a lot of good for the tension in his borrowed body.

It didn't help Wufei work out what to do next, but the engineers had a thought about how to handle the G forces Tallgeese threw off. That wasn't quite as interesting as sliding his thumb over the edge of Treize's cock head. Tallgeese made him feel guilty. Treize's dick, on the other hand, made him feel very very good, and so he sighed and melted into the mattress, giving a slow and teasing stroke.

He used his heels against the mattress to get just the slightest bit of leverage as he lazily rubbed slick lube down along the man's length. His eyes were half closed, but he liked the look of the man's dick sliding between his fingers. He liked to see it, and this body clearly liked being seen because it seemed to make him harder, as if the reaction might be hardwired. Wufei had no idea if it actually was or not, but it was a lovely thought and certainly didn't make him any less hard or less interested. It felt good, so good, and he managed to suppress a moan, the breath coming out in a heavy sigh instead.

God, it was so good.

If he was going to be stuck in that body until he died, he was at least going to make sure both he and the body had a good time. A little extra pressure just beneath the head, on the edge, nice and slick, made one leg go a little weak, made a shudder ripple through him. He liked this cock. It wasn't that he didn't like his own, but it was always nice to play with one that wasn't his. He hadn't precisely had a lot of opportunity for it before, and certainly hadn't taken anyone up on the invitation anytime in the last two decades. He'd had other things on his mind.

He'd had missions and work to do. There was always another case, something to be fought, someone to be taught. There was Kathy to... raise was the wrong word, but perhaps yes, because he had put so much focus into making sure she was supported, trained, not safe per se but capable. Taking time for himself, to enjoy a willing body and a lovely cock would have distracted him from everything he needed to do.

Now there was just the slide and stroke of his hand, the way that his hips rocked up into it. His left knee didn't distract him from it, and Wufei gave a soft laugh, hips still rocking up to the touch, perhaps a little more quickly because yes. Yes, that was so good.

Yes, he could fuck his own hand and watch and revel in how it looked and how it felt, no pain. Everything moved well, and that fat cock was gorgeous in his fist, making him ache for more, faster. He could just imagine sitting on it, moaning at how it would ache, how it would take a while to get used to it, and then it would be all pleasure, jerking himself off while he rode it, and that was the end of it. He came, catching it in the tissues, shivers rippling through him.

He let his eyes close as he fondled himself while he went soft. The morning would be another horror show of negotiating an unknown world, but for the moment he could laze and feel sated, a few muscles giving fluttering twitches as he relaxed.

It was honestly enjoyable, and he fell asleep imagining what it would feel like if he'd come back to find Treize earlier.

* * *

"Now then," Kathy advised him sternly. "What do you do when they come in?"

"I don't try to explain why we're having this meeting?" He rubbed at the side of his neck – – it was something he wanted, but he wasn't sure that playing a parody of another person while doing it would have anything useful for him.

"And?" she asked him.

"I don't hug anyone and I greet them carefully." The real problem was that while many people had told him over the years that he should've been an actor, what they really meant was a performer because he could captivate and he had a presence -- which was vastly different from being able to pretend he was a completely different person.

Which he was.

What had made him think this was a good idea? What at all?

"Right." She sighed. "You know, we could have just made a call, but no."

"I'm going to rewrite this timeline if I get back at all. Wufei will do it just because he didn't know everything I had planned. It's not going to matter if I fuck this up. They both wanted to see Wufei, and it's not so terrible to come out this far. It's sort of amazing."

Kathy couldn't seem to help smiling at him. "It is, isn't it?" She didn't ask him the obvious questions -- what if he just went straight back and didn't remember anything, what if they figured out what was going on, what if, what if, what if. So many possibilities.

If he went back and didn't remember anything, and slipped up badly, then they were all going to remember the sad moment where Treize Khushrenada reached out to see them and then still wasn't able to fix anything at all. And what would that make him but more of a failure than he already was? He shoved his hands in his pockets, looking out over the landscape through the window. "Humanity is going to go out further than Mars now that you know how. They will scatter among the stars."

Kathy settled into the chair beside him, placing teacups at each seat. "We might. Or we might look at the war on Mars and say that it isn't worth it, all things considered." She poured a cup for him and then for herself, leaving the ones for Anne and Mariemaia for when they arrived. "Besides. I think that, for now, between the two planets, we do have the resources we need." She frowned. "It's stupid for us to go to war at this point."

"It was stupid for you to go to war months ago, and yet. The continued use of mobile dolls disturbs me." He twisted the teacup between his hands before taking a sip when he settled into ‘his’ chair. "It cheapens life for someone thousands of miles away to press a button and loose automated systems on whatever they like. If one engages like that, one should risk the cost incurred." See it up close and personal, and he was thinking of L5, of L2, and a dead hand thrust out of the rubble, not quite fast enough, and a crippled prototype suit.

That snort wasn't quite laughter, but close. "You sound just like him when you say that." She sighed. "I think you'd have liked one another a lot more if you hadn't been on opposite sides of a war," she admitted.

"I obviously liked him quite a bit if I decided to die by his hand. He was... very brave, when he could have just stepped on me with that Gundam." He sighed, and then the doorbell rang. Damn. He liked Kathy, too, for all that she didn't trust him.

"I'll get it," she advised, and rose to go to the door.

It only took a moment; it wasn't like the house was very big, just comfortable for one or two people. Nothing like Treize had grown up with, he thought, and managed to keep the smile of welcome he wanted to give suppressed. "Hello, Anne." So hard not to call her Lady. She was a countess in her own right, and Treize didn't think any of them knew that except Mariemaia because she didn't wave it about. But it was properly her title and things like that had meaning.

And then the young woman with her entered the house, and oh. She looked so much like his mother. Her jaw was harder, her eyes a different shade of blue, more like her mother's, but her hair, her graceful bearing. She walked with a cane, from her injury of course, but even that seemed to be casually held. "Mari. What's this about you having tenure now?"

She grinned at him, and it was shocking and amazing. That was Vingt's smile, the one when he'd achieved something remarkable. "Yes. You have no idea how much I enjoyed the look on their faces when I argued my dissertation, never mind the sour expression on Potts's face when they gave me tenure only a year later. Thank you for that book you gave me that included _vampyroteuthis infernalis,"_ she said, and seated herself easily as if she felt entirely comfortable in his space.

He was so grateful that she had people in her life she felt comfortable with. And grateful when Kathy closed the door and sat down to pour the tea. "And Anne had told me to stop giving you such trash to read. See, it was useful." It was a double shame that they hadn't been on the same side of the war because they had similar taste in books, too.

"She was _twelve,_ and had nightmares because she couldn't figure out how to look up the classification," Anne replied dryly. "You have the same taste in fictional novels as her father."

He gave a scoff of a laugh that Kathy had agreed sounded about right. "Then I carried on a good tradition. I've had time for more reading since leaving."

"That has been one of the best things about retiring," Anne agreed.

"She says retiring. What she really means," Mariemaia advised, "is that she sits at home and realizes what a stress free day she's having and then cleans all of the closets from top to bottom because she needs something to do."

"Didn't you say you used to do macrame?" He squinted at her a little speculatively as he sipped his tea.

Anne blinked at him, a little shocked. "I... don't remember saying that, but yes. Actually. I suppose that would keep my mind busy."

"I've turned the shed into a workshop. Keeping busy balances out the books." It wasn't as if there was a library to borrow from way out where he was. Kathy had to take the motorbike into town, and that was basically a day trip just for supplies. She usually brought them in with her on the way to one of the outposts so that he could have the nicer things that could be found in the city.

"The tea is lovely, by the way." It was clear that Anne was complementing Kathy, which was just as well.

"Better than coffee. You know how he is about his coffee." And all three of them turned knowing smirks his way.

Dammit, Treize didn't know how he was about his coffee. That was unfair.

"Which is why none of you are being offered coffee. I was banned." He twisted the cup between his hands, turning it before he took a sip. "Do you have a full plan sketched out for your time in the capitol?"

That led to conversation, and it made things easier. So much easier, all of them talking with one another and even over one another when Mariemaia became too excited. The daughter he hadn't known about was brilliant and funny and sharp, and he wished that he had known about her sooner. He was glad that she had grown up, at least partially, surrounded by people who loved her. The timely intervention of an actual functioning adult was a priceless gift, and he was glad that Anne had wanted to be that for her. That Wufei and Sally, he guessed, and probably more people had decided to help rather than turn their back on her.

He did catch Anne watching his hands on the cup, though. It made him nervous, and apparently Wufei's face naturally fell into a scowl when he was nervous because he felt his lips tug downward in response to the fluttering inside of him.

"....and then the poor boy just fell down crying because he'd missed the deadline, and honestly, if the whole thing was a lie, well. He deserved the extension just for the ability to produce tears in that quantity," Mariemaia finished.

"I would have run him out of the room," he scowled, shaking his head. It left him almost afraid to touch the damn cup because clearly she had noticed and wondered.

"Why don't we leave the girls to catch up," Anne suggested. "You can show me the workshop."

She knew.

She knew, she knew, she knew, and he panicked just a little.

He threw back his tea, which was thankfully lukewarm, like it was alcohol, and stood slowly. That knee was bothersome, and he found he had to stand still for a moment after standing so it could decide what it was going to do. "You'll find it interesting."

"No doubt," Anne agreed, and he led the way, showing her the space and shutting the door between the house and the workshop with a sense of dread filling him.

So he handled it the only way he knew how. By being the first one to say it. "I'm... so glad to know that your life turned out in a way that you were happy."

"It's you." And if her eyes welled and her arms wrapped around him... Long moments later, she let out a sigh. "What on earth caused this? As much as I'm glad to see you again, glad that you know about Mari...."

"I _believe_ that Wufei was looking for answers on the Operation Mythos data chip, and we have..." He struggled for a moment to find the words, because she was still tall, taller than Wufei, and softer from age than she had ever been. Because she was alive and had lived and that was so... so good, given how many lives had been lost, pilots they'd come up with who were dead and young. He was dead and young. "He's back in AC 195. I'm trying to fix it."

It startled him when she leaned in and kissed his forehead, and then buried her face in his shoulder to weep silently. That felt terrible, mostly because he hadn't seen her cry since she was very young. Much younger than he'd been when he died. "I missed you," she finally said quietly. "I did."

"I'm sorry." His throat hurt, and his chest ached as he held her. Treize inhaled to try to steady himself. "I was in a very deep hole and I thought I found a way out."

"What you did was... was horrible. Wufei spent a year nearly out of his mind with grief and confusion and ended up in Mariemaia's army, although I don't think he would have called it grief for you. It was part of it, though. The only thing that kept me out of it was that I knew, utterly knew, what you would have wanted. So instead I protected the Earth." She looked at him, then, and sniffed, mouth still trembling. "And I've spent a lot of time telling Mariemaia all about you."

"She would be disappointed by the genuine artifact, I think." He lifted a hand to wipe at his eyes. Wufei's eyes. "I want to fix this. I need to work out what to do differently. What happened between the fleet and the Eve War that caused... that turn?"

She shook her head. "So many things. I was busy playing ambassador to the colonies and so I don't know if there was any single incident that caused such a problem. It just... it just happened, and it was awful. It was horrible. I don't know."

"Something happened." And it was going to remain a mystery, it seemed, because he could see the, he could see the edge of the idea there, yes, to create a loss so devastating that his men would surrender, to martyr himself. It was cheating, a little. He'd come close to killing himself through the act of battle before, a necessary sacrifice, but that... There was just something he was missing.

His face was framed in her hands, and she kissed his forehead. Wufei's forehead. "Please. Please don't do it again. There has to be another way. Find it."

"How did I get Dermail to allow me to finish Epyon when I was under house arrest? Were we talking?" He brought a hand up to cover one of her hands.

"I don't know. Tsubarov shot me when I freed pilots 02 and 05 from the lunar base. He'd cut off their oxygen supply."

"And then you rallied to save me from the beam." Something while Une was recovering from her injury. "You've helped me narrow it down. It won't happen again." If he went back and got it to work, would that world carry on as if nothing happened and would another one start? It was something they'd never been able to tell with their science. It was only twenty odd years in the future, and some of it felt imperceptible from magic. "I am so sorry, Lady."

"So am I." She withdrew her hands slowly. "Now. Come show me what our industrious Master Chang has managed to do."

After that, it felt almost like the old days, except that she understood the improvements in the technology better than he did. It was normal for her, like traveling on terraformed Mars. He showed her how Wufei had routed the viewing system through Epyon, and she got it immediately, where Kathy hadn't.

"Of course. If you'd both been on the same side of the war, I don't think anyone would have managed to defeat whichever side that was." Her mouth was curved with wry amusement. "I can be sure the tech coming out of it would be appallingly advanced and better than anyone else could manage."

"Or simply appalling. Be honest with me, did I have enough pull left to get the pilots released from the lunar base before I resigned? How fine was the timing there?" He laid the visor down in the cockpit seat, watching her face for tells.

"You resigned the same day that they were freed. I think, yes. If you'd asked the right person in just the right way, I think you could have gotten them delivered to you." She nodded.

"A few days might make the difference and keep you from being shot." She had done well as an ambassador, and she had clearly forged her own direction by the time Tsubarov shot her. If she could have continued that trajectory...

"Perhaps. The scientists who created the Gundams were also on the base." The twitch of her mouth said that she'd probably still get shot. "I'm not sure you'd have the pull to get them brought to you."

"I don't think a great deal of the scientists. They'll manage. How to keep the pilots with their Gundams..." Ah that was complicated. "Perhaps you wouldn't mind if I sent you a few more secure messages while we work through this? I don't want to create suspicions for Mariemaia." That would just be confusing for her, and possibly give her hope that she might get to know him as her father. That would be cruel since they were looking for a way to reverse things.

"Of course. You'll undoubtedly have access to Wufei's devices by now, and my contact information should be stored there."

"Yes." It was arrogant for him to feel bad about possibly wiping it all out, everything that had happened, which inclined him to prefer the idea that if he went back in time and retained knowledge, they would carry on as they had been and it would create a new fork. Branches and sequels. "Thank you, lady, for everything you've done."

She smiled and patted his hand, clearly still just a bit overcome. "I'm just so glad to see you one more time."

"Even under such circumstances," he murmured agreeably. "I don't know if you'll personally see any change. I don't know how all of this will work. We'll have to find out."

"Do you need any help?" She nodded at the system, already knowing his answer, but she had always asked and now was no different.

"No. Though I will come to you for experience-related questions." She had another over two decades of experience, and knowledge of history, understanding of the implications. She would help him set it right. He wiped at his eyes one last time.

"Sometimes I forget how young you were. Are." Yes. He supposed she might. "Well. We should go back before the girls get suspicious."

"Yes." He chuckled a little because it hadn't felt young at all at the time. He had felt like he had lived for centuries. He led the way out of the shed, and closed it once Anne was out.

There was so much to do, but it would all have to wait. He'd have to be patient until the parts came in, and until then, he still had a friend.

* * *

Zechs Marquise was a complete pain in his ass. Wufei was pretty sure that was just his nature; that he was born to make Wufei want to bang his head against the nearest hard surface. Today was not an exception to that rule.

Wufei had had too many years of the man. He and Noin had fucked off to Mars early. He had dipped in and out of the Preventers when it pleased him. He dabbled while the rest of them worked paperwork, training, process and procedure, performing those maintenance tasks that the man seemed too lofty to do.

His time in OZ seemed much the same, haring off when it pleased himself, ignoring orders. That was what had gotten them where they were today. He was supposed to have destroyed Heero's Gundam, and of course he hadn't. He'd wanted to have a proper duel with him to see who was better.

"Why are you like this?" he asked Zechs, scowling.

"Why am I _what?"_ The man looked shocked that he'd said that, frowning a little. "Treize."

"Like this," Wufei said again, and sighed. "Why would you do something like this? You've made things inordinately difficult." That sounded right.

"I had to know which of us was better. You understand, don't you? You fought one."

He managed not to sigh again. "Yes, I fought one. He exited his Gundam and we fought in person. That is not this."

The man's mouth compressed, and he was staring at him, staring at Wufei as if he had never heard anything so ridiculous in his life. "You never justify yourself."

His mind scrabbled. "Obviously nothing else has worked thus far. You know they'll want to execute you for treason."

"Ridiculous." Zechs sighed, and leaned an elbow on a knee, watching Treize still. "I'm too high profile."

"And you committed treason," Wufei pointed out. He shook his head. "I'll do my best. Can I bring you anything? Obviously not keys, but novels or....?"

"You overthrew the government. _We_ overthrew the Alliance." With and for Romefeller. "How can I commit treason against what we've already done?"

Wufei honestly couldn't answer that question. "I don't have the necessary clout to do anything about the charge. But I'll try."

Zechs's jaw clenched. "Dermail. Dermail has his hand so far up your ass, it's a wonder you eat without his permission."

Wufei looked at Zechs, and he was sure that his face said everything that he wasn't saying out loud. "Do you want the books or not?"

The man looked shocked that he didn't... didn't do something Treize would have done apparently. "Please. I'll take books. Try to mitigate it, give me a chance."

That was actually rather surprising. He pulled a pen and small notepad out of a hidden pocket. Khushrenada seemed to have pockets everywhere. "Write down any particular things you want. I'll do my best."

"Treize..." He reached to take it, still staring at him a little. He ended up standing against the bars, close to Treize. "What's happened?"

What was he supposed to say to that? He had no idea, and he looked to the side, eyes dropping. "It's impossible to explain. Just... one day. I'll tell you one day. When all of this is resolved." He looked directly into Zechs's eyes. "And when I come to tell you, I'll use the phrase _vampyroteuthis infernalis."_ That definitely wasn't something that anyone would say at random outside of Mariemaia.

He would perhaps explain it to Zechs in twenty odd years, or perhaps he never would. But it was a distraction, a sleight of hand, and Zechs squinted at him for a moment and then shrugged tightly before looking down to scrawl down a few book titles. "Fine. After this is resolved."

Wufei nodded, looking at him again. "Yes. One day." Because Treize was going to die before he ever had the opportunity to say anything.

Treize was going to throw himself on Wufei's lance and there would be no stopping him. The only thing Wufei understood was how complicated the war had been from his side, how exhausted Treize was, fraying at the seams to keep some sort of balance between everyone he was playing off of everyone else. He understood that if anyone in the world had ever met Treize and understood him, they were just as busy as he was then; Zechs was the first person in weeks to look at him even the slightest bit in doubt.

He handed the notebook back to Wufei. "I'll miss you."

"I'll miss you, too." Because he truly thought that Treize must have been friends with him, good friends. Possibly more. "I'll bring back the books."

"Thank you." His voice softened, and he still sounded shocked. Maybe they had been lovers; whatever it was, they were clearly intimates, if he thought he could say something rude like that to a superior officer to provoke some familiar riposte.

He paused. "Zechs. Just... promise me that you'll do your best. Yes?"

"Of course." He was still frowning, and perhaps it would stick with him. Or perhaps the man would find a way to twist it and continue to be unbearable the same way he'd done time and time again after the war. It was really a coin toss.

No one could ever tell with Zechs. He was a pain in the ass, but he honestly didn't deserve to die, no matter how grumpy he made Wufei. So Wufei nodded and stepped back to leave. "Be well."

Zechs lifted a hand in goodbye, and it was better to leave. He could have someone else bring the books down later, avoid further conversation. Hope that it changed their world's outcome for the better, or at least didn't make it worse.

And then the world... wobbled.

And he was staring into the bright blue gaze of Treize Khushrenada.

The color was bright, but there were wrinkles at the edges and the skin was thin and papery looking around his eyes, and he was pouring coffee for Wufei.

Wufei was somehow sitting at his table in the kitchen. Where he belonged. In the kitchen on Mars.

What the fuck? What the literal fuck?

"I'm... very confused right now," he said slowly. "Because this makes no sense." Never mind the fact that Treize Khushrenada was _in his kitchen._ He was also _pouring him coffee._ Then a cat jumped onto the coffee table, and was gently shooed onto the floor.

"Hmn? You don't want to meet them in the capitol next week?" He quirked an eyebrow at Wufei, and pulled a chair out across from Wufei with all the casual, god, the man was wearing a shirt like a normal person, not a cravat in sight.

He looked... ridiculously good, actually. "What?"

He set his cup down on a saucer, and was looking at Wufei with a careful looking expression. "Wufei, are you all right?"

"I'm.... very confused," he replied. "Am I dead?" Because last he knew, Treize Khushrenada was dead, and now he was sitting across the table from him.

"What, no? Oh. Oh! I did always wonder how this was going to go." He nudged the coffee cup aside, reaching out to take Wufei's hands in a very familiar gesture, not a second of hesitation. "Did you just... return from the other timeline?"

Well, that answered that, he supposed. "Yes. And I'm very confused."

The fingers over his were still strong, and everything felt very jarring. "I'm sorry, it's been a long time. Uh, do you mind if I go and find where I put the notes?"

Wufei shook his head, and when the fingers let go, he reached for the coffee almost out of habit. "No. No, I'll just, ah..."

And the coffee was perfect, exactly sweet enough and with just the amount of cream he liked.

Treize Khushrenada knew how he liked his coffee.

He stood up, and walked from the kitchen through the open living room to the bedroom. It left Wufei to look around, and find the decor was different than it had been. The table was the same, but the walls had a light shade of sage green paint, which they hadn't been. There were swords mounted, crossed, over the biofuel powered fireplace. The furniture was less utilitarian but no less comfortable looking. Even the rugs on the floor were different, and he was honestly just befuddled.

When Treize came back, he had risen and started poking through kitchen cabinets. At least it was the same rice maker.

Some things were moved, not quite where he was used to finding it, but it was clearly a house he lived in. It was his house, it was the same, but everything had... shifted. There was a small animal roaming it. "I know this is disconcerting."

"I'm very confused." Which he'd told Treize before, but apparently it bore repeating.

"I'm hoping your memories.... integrate again. I don't know, it's all guess and conjecture at this point. I thought you might find yourself back in your original timeline eventually. With Kathy. She's still your goddaughter." He handed Wufei a battered journal, the pages stiff and dry.

Wufei looked up at him. "What is this?" It was a relief that Kathy was still a part of his life. He hoped that everyone was.

He hoped Zechs was less annoying.

He didn't know what to hope about Treize.

"When I got back to myself, I wrote down everything that had happened, everything I learned, everything. In case I forgot." The other man eased down into the chair, and pulled his own coffee cup in closer again. "Your left knee is still terrible. You're fighting me about taking your medication for it again, so it's making a clicking grinding noise at the oddest times. You sound like a rusty mech."

Wufei didn't know what to do about that, but his body obviously did because he found himself laughing, and he said, "It's not that bad yet."

"It is exactly that bad." Treize sipped at his coffee, holding it up near his mouth even after he took his sip. "Just wait until you hear it for yourself. It felt terrible to me, but I hadn't really started to experience joint pain by then. I was too young to understand personally the damage being a pilot does to you year after year, and there I was in a body that had survived it all, gracefully. Beautifully."

And if he blushed, well. He couldn't help it. It seemed like the sort of thing that lovers would say and it was fairly obvious that was what was going on here. In order to keep from looking at him when he was blushing, Wufei began to flip through the notebook. "This is very in depth."

"I had time to read histories while I waited for parts. Kathy arrived, oh, a week after it happened, and babysat me for the summer. There was a lot of time for reading. I wanted to understand how the root causes of what I did led to... how things turned out."

Wufei blinked up at him, frowning. "And what did you do? How did you... who won? Why are we here like this?"

The man's mouth pulled wryly at one side, before he asked very seriously, "Do you prefer I tell you, or do you want news sources?"

"You tell me. I'll check news sources later for any further questions." There was no doubt that was what he wanted.

It softened something on that smile, warmed it, and Wufei could feel something else like a blush rise. "We upended the conduct of the war. In the end, Earth and the colonies united against White Fang. L5 did not self-destruct, but the battle damaged it heavily, and it caused a refugee crisis on L1 for a time. It, I'm sorry, there's so much to tell you, I don't know where to focus."

Oh.

His sinuses stung and his eyes were wet, because what?

What?

"Is it... are there..." He bit hard on the inside of his mouth.

"It's been repaired and we last visited a few months ago. We go once every couple of years. There’s, damn, hold on, we have pictures..." Treize was up again, looking for something in the living room. Oh, he couldn't, he couldn't believe it, it seemed impossible.

What the hell. What the hell had happened, and then he gasped and grabbed both of his temples, palms pushing hard.

* * *

The room he was escorted into was dim, dark, and he didn't appreciate the gun nudging hard against his spine. There was a man standing by the window, though it was a moonless night out and there wasn't a great deal to see; he immediately knew the profile was Khushrenada.

"Leave him with me."

"You aren't afraid I'll kill you and escape?" It was a stupid question, but his bravado was all he had.

"I think you're better than that." The man turned to look at him. Wufei heard the door close behind the guard. He still had cuffs on, which would have slowed him down, though he could have used the chain to choke the man.

He felt his chin jerk up in defiance and he met that sapphirine gaze with his own. "You don't know anything about me."

"You had the chance to take your revenge that day out among the fleet. You could have crushed me and moved on. I have thought of that moment regularly. Your bravery left an impression on me, Chang Wufei." He stepped away from the window, walking closer in the dark.

Bravery. Ha. "You defeated me. I should have crushed you and moved on." He wouldn't have been able to bring himself to do it, somehow. It was personal with Khushrenada, and something about that just made everything complicated.

"You're so much better than that." The man was smiling at him, like he knew a secret. He was holding up a key. "I could use your help. I'm resigning tomorrow."

What? "...what?" Wufei didn't understand. This man was insane. He hadn't ever thought otherwise, but.... just insane. "How do those things go together?"

He gestured for Wufei to hold his cuffed hands out. "Work with me to undermine Romefeller from within. This use of mobile dolls cannot stand."

Wufei could feel the absolutely feral smile making its way over his face. "Yes."

Yes. They'd take down Romefeller, and maybe they could do something good and right for the world somewhere in there.

* * *

The sound Wufei had made, the complete posture of agony had made his heart jump into his chest. If Wufei had a medical emergency, if either of them had a medical emergency, they both knew they lived far away enough from civilization that it was more a matter of calling someone to bring a body bag. The village's ambulance service could certainly be there within half an hour, yes. But the pulse-point in both wrists felt equally strong, and it seemed more fugue-like than heart attack.

Wufei finally lifted his head, blinking owlishly while Treize stroked his fingers over his wrists. “Oh. We. We did something. That wasn’t the same at all.”

"No. It wasn't the same at all. We did a lot together. Your loved ones kept commenting that we were very similar at the root of things. That we should have worked together. And I thought it could not have made things worse."

Wufei's pupils were dilated but they were starting to come back into normal range. "I guess it worked." He didn't have the look that _his_ Wufei had, but Treize thought they would get there. "You resigned the day after you had me delivered from the lunar base."

"Yes. Une, Anne was still shot because I couldn't get Maxwell freed as well." He smoothed a thumb over the tendons of one wrist, still studying Wufei's face carefully. "Anne, her husband, and Mariemaia are visiting from Earth next week."

Ohhh. "That's why you asked about going to the capitol next week. Yes. If I've managed to get my head sorted out." Because it was obvious that he'd need to do that before they could see anyone.

He was worried that every little memory chunk for twenty-two years would hit Wufei so hard. "No one noticed when you were in my body. I was caught immediately by everyone." He offered that to Wufei as... reassurance somehow. "I failed to greet Kathy appropriately. I wasn't brusque enough with Anne. Mariemaia was suspicious, but thankfully you and I had the same taste in historical pastiches." He had a language of literature with Mariemaia and Treize could speak that, could communicate in books in a way that didn't ruin his chances.

Wufei was frowning now, thinking. "Perhaps," he said slowly, "we should go ahead and go to the capitol. You look worried." He was, and that wasn't a bad idea. Much better than being half an hour away from the nearest village while the memories came back to him. That had looked painful, and while neither of them had a lot of stroke risk... well.

He exhaled slowly, watching that familiar frown. "Out of an abundance of caution. We could weather this here fine, I think, but we have an apartment in the capitol." Because Treize and his family had always been firm believers in investing in interesting locations, which meant that Mariemaia had been able to host her eighteenth birthday in Ibiza with friends without anyone going broke.

Wufei smiled, and it was the one he was accustomed to seeing, a gentle curve of mouth that was only ever given to Treize. Even if his brain didn't know everything yet, his body did seem to remember some things. "You'll feel better if we go. I don't know how I know that."

"We've had enough close calls over the years." He stroked his fingers over Wufei's wrist, feeling soft, familiar warm skin. At least Wufei didn't seem inclined to be upset by it, which had been his worry initially, years ago. And then as things had grown more distant for him from it happening, well... "I'll pack our bags."

Wufei nodded and rose, and yes. There was that creaky left knee, because it popped and he scowled down at it. "It wasn't this bad when I left," he muttered, which probably wasn't even remotely true.

"There were some other changes, so it's possible." He was going to be kind and perhaps a little warmly patronizing as he gathered up the journal and started to collect up the data pads from the living room.

"How many of those do you need?" Wufei raised an eyebrow, so perhaps he was going to be warmly patronizing in return. Or perhaps that was an indication that he would smack him if he kept it up. It wouldn't be the first time.

"Hmn, one's been completely repurposed for photos, I have mech designs from the mad scientists I was reviewing because we're... a little terrible at retiring, and it's processor intensive, so a third for news and reading. And you have two." He cracked a broad smile then, relaxing because if Wufei could shove back that was at least proof he hadn't suffered some mini stroke or. Whatever it would be called.

"Mad scientists?" He could tell from the way Wufei's face screwed up that it was a bit confusing. "Surely they're dead by now."

"Quatre and Triton," he corrected, heading to the bedroom and staying mindful that Wufei was following him and taking the place in, no doubt noting differences. "They're quite brilliant. I thought they worked with you a bit on Nataku in the... other timeline?"

Wufei shook his head. "No. They built others, but not Nataku. The only hands I wanted on her were mine." Which was quite true in any given timeline, Treize supposed.

He was fond and mildly possessive of Epyon. "You did eventually let me add the Epyon system to it as an augment. I think you've used it all of two times since then." Treize tossed the datapads lightly onto the loosely made bed, and went to the closet to pull out suitcases.

"I added it myself previously." He was frowning, though. "That seems a fuzzier sort of memory than it should be. Do you suppose the timelines will just... switch over in my head?"

"They might. I can leave you alone if you want to just write it down while you can still remember it." He wasn't sure how to handle it, because a shift from one world and set of experiences into another was still a loss. It was hard to process.

He'd written down everything he could remember and then he'd committed to journaling all of the changes, as well, and somewhere in there, things _had_ gotten strange and fuzzy. It wasn't unreasonable. "Yes. Thank you. I'll...." Wufei glanced around, frowned, and went back into the living room. Treize could tell from the sound of his footsteps that he'd gone straight to where they kept spare journals and notebooks. Ferdinand chased after Wufei like a sleek furry ghost back into the living room.

The notebooks were just where Wufei expected them. Treize left him alone to reconcile things in his mind. Packing was easy, a completely mindless task since he knew what Wufei liked to travel with. Their drive to the capitol could wait.

Documenting history was much more important.

* * *

Wufei was slick with sweat, scowling at the hydraulics system with a wrench in hand. "It'd be smarter just to have the whole damned thing replaced from start to finish because I'm going to beat it to death shortly."

"That will do wonders for integrity." Treize Khushrenada was a brilliant engineer, but there were clearly some gaps in his informal training because some of the design decisions he made led to painful problems when building. Yes everything was shielded and enclosed beautifully and protected; it also made it harder to get to everything while they worked on it.

He couldn't keep the snort behind his teeth. "Fuck its integrity, if it cannot stand, what use is it? At this point, I'm just. Ugh." Frustrated and irritated and he needed a bath. He'd grown far too accustomed to Treize's habits, which involved soaking until he was a loosely relaxed collection of limbs.

"I was trying to improve weak points. Do you know how many mechs I've taken out over the years by kicking them behind the knees?" If he held still too long he was sure that Treize would tell him, but for the moment the man seemed to be contemplating the problem as he stood beside Wufei. They both smelled, and Treize's hair was wet with sweat and hydraulic fluid from the mishap that had sent them to the starting point. The guards who patrolled the outer edges of the building seemed concerned if they didn't come up for air occasionally, or a walk.

"Let's try this more tomorrow."

Oh, thank fuck.

Drawing the back of one wrist against his forehead, Wufei stood. He could feel the streak of fluid on his forehead and made a sound of disgust. "Yes. I need a bath."

"I'll let you get first crack at it." The quarters were designed for one person, so they had been alternating who took the bed and who slept on the large plush sofa. As far as house arrests went, Wufei was inclined to call it ridiculous. The man was building a Gundam; the guards seemed loyal to him, though not all of them. He had clearly unmonitored data access to the outside world, or at least had already circumvented it.

The only weird spite was the lack of overhead lighting on the floors with windows. Once they came up upstairs for the evening, everything was pitch dark. It made zero sense. There was absolutely electricity, someone had just removed the lightbulbs. There was no taking them out of the industrial fittings down in the basement either, they were caged in tightly.

Well, and the fact that there was no silverware.

What did they think they would do? Use filaments and forks to build bombs? It was preposterous considering what they were working on downstairs. "Thank you." Both of them needed a bath, and it wasn't as if the tub wasn't big enough for both of them, and possibly another while they were at it. The thought made him flush and glance away from those ridiculously blue eyes. "I'm going up, then."

"I'll come up with you. Maybe if we sleep on it, it'll be easier to solve." He ran a hand through his hair, and then started out of the bay, to walk up the long staircase.

"Perhaps," Wufei agreed. "I think you're filthier than I am. Are you sure you wouldn't like to go first?"

"No, I can leave grease stains on one of my step-grandfather's chairs." That was a wry twist of his mouth as they walked the stairs. Treize was surprisingly easy to get along with.

He was... strangely familiar, Wufei supposed. He shouldn't be, and yet. Possibly it was that they had the same voracious reading habits. "You'll enjoy leaving them." Which was also true. If the old man had removed the lightbulbs out of spite, well. Treize would make sure he returned that spite in spades.

There was nothing like taking the lightbulbs to keep a man out of the paperbacks. "It takes so little." He let Wufei make his way to the bathroom, and veered to sit in the bedroom, near a window for the time being.

It was a shame that he didn't join Wufei in the bath.

That made him flush with heat, and he knew that he'd end up masturbating in his bath, which was... well. He wasn't sure if he felt embarrassed by it or just extraordinarily horny.

He couldn't remember the last time he had felt an interest, a pull, and he had no idea how to cross the line between interest to making it happen. Meiran had been selected for him and they had grown up side by side. It had been easier. Everything had been easier.

Possibly for both of them.

Wufei stripped off while the water was running, choosing bath salts, leaning down and stirring them around until they were well dissolved, and then he slid into the bath, dropping his head below the water long enough to wet his hair before sitting up and sighing. That was quite good.

Hot water was lovely after a day like that. His muscles were sore because working on a mobile suit in Earth gravity was hard compared to semi-zero.

There was a knock on the door. "Apologies. I need to wash my hands. I underestimated the grease."

Wufei's brain ground to a halt. "Ah.... yes?" Because what else was he going to say? He didn't know, and his body seemed to have ground to a stop, as well.

Treize nudged the door open, hands poised awkwardly as he wandered over to the sink. Everything seemed normal until he looked over, and their eyes met.

Fuck.

_Fuck._

He licked his lips, lashes dipping so that he could peer through them, and this. This was a strange moment, the sort of make or break moment that he was sure only came once in a lifetime, or possibly twice. He was almost waiting for the moment when the man would turn away and go back into the bedroom and their awkwardly shared spaces. He laid a hand on the edge of the sink, still watching, and then stepped away and toward the bathtub.

Wufei looked up at him, and his heart was beating rapidly, a staccato rhythm of _yes finally now_ and so he shaded his eyes with his lashes again. "Interested in sharing, hm?"

"Would you mind?" It didn't stop him from moving, and he started to shrug out of the coveralls.

"No." Not at all, quite obviously, and he watched shamelessly as Treize stripped out of his clothing. They'd spent weeks together now and they were in sync. This was something he thought they had both seen coming. It was just a matter of which of them would move first. If either of them would move or if they would remain simply synchronized and friendly. He slipped into the tub beside Wufei, ducking under the water for a moment to get the worst of it off.

Wufei's heart was still beating out a tattoo of _want, want, want._ He knew that if Treize even remotely bothered checking, his body would say as much. "You're filthy," he murmured instead, and reached for the soap.

He laughed, and reached for Wufei's chin with a clean hand. "You can help me with that."

And when he leaned in and caught his mouth, well. Wufei didn't even bother to pretend that he didn't want it, just turned and wrapped one still dirty arm close around him, sliding into his lap as easily as if they'd done it a thousand times before, a million. As if he knew what he was doing. It felt good, and the press of lips against his was firm, exploring deeply and pulling him in closer. The mingling of dirt and grease didn't matter because they'd manage to do something about that in short order.

God, that was so good, that mouth purely masterful, all teasing darts of tongue and gentle lips, none of the biting or nips that he'd heard of some people doing. No, it was nice, delightful, and Wufei gave a little sound so that he would know it was. One hand curved against his hip beneath the water, pulling him in closer. He could feel the man's half hard dick stirring to life between them, while they lazily traded slow kisses. "Oh I've wanted to do this."

"How long?" He sounded breathless even to his own ears. "Because I've wanted to do this for weeks." At least since just after he'd arrived. The man was... alluring.

"Since you came down to challenge me." The clutch at his hip, the suggestion of strength, the feel of his erection, it was making him want, want more, feeling a little frenzied as Treize kissed him again, taking the soap with his other hand.

"Oh. Ohhh." Because huh. He'd had no idea that was how things would turn out but he could certainly appreciate it to no end. Treize Khushrenada was different in person than in photos -- more charismatic and more everything, in Wufei's opinion, and he began to slide soapy hands over Treize's shoulders and spine. "Yes. Yes, that's..."

There was a slow rub of the soap bar down his back, and over his shoulders, Treize leaning forward and into him, keeping the contact, and there was just a hint of friction. Everything was slick and wet and it felt good, and oh. Oh, that was rather large, that was the kind of thing most men thought they needed to be carrying around. Wufei had never felt bad about his own cock, but that was a little intimidating, he had to admit.

The rubbing was good, a delicious slow bumping of cock against cock without any purpose to it, and then slick hands cupped his ass and hitched his hips in closer. "You're gorgeous."

"Mmmm," Wufei hummed, his own hips setting up a rocking, left knee jammed a little too firmly against the bottom of the tub. "You're entirely too attractive for your own good. Or mine."

"I'm going to interpret that as an enthusiastic yes, that I shouldn't stop yet." It was just on the edge, teasing and tempting but not quite enough to get anywhere.

"Yes. Please do consider that as an enthusiastic yes," Wufei advised, and when he rocked his hips forward, everything pressed wetly together and oh, that was lovely. That was not quite perfect. "God, you're just..."

A perfect specimen of a man, at least in body, and grinning against his mouth, so happy to be kissing him that it was contagious as he flexed and rocked up against Wufei. "Anything you want."

He drew in a shuddering gasp. "Be careful what you say. I might take you up on it." He would, too, and if they didn't get out of this bath and head straight to the bed and fuck through the night, he would be disappointed.

Wufei got one last rock, and then Treize kissed the edge of his jaw, breathing unevenly. "Little more soap and then bed? I want to hah, see you but the fucking lights..." He was just glad the bathroom had a massive picture window in it, too.

"Pretty sure there are some small candles in a kitchen cabinet. For emergencies. Saw them... oh, that's, that's..." Yes. Yes. "We'll raid the kitchen first." For oil and for food and for the candles, which were only meager tea lights, but they'd manage. It wasn't enough for reading or anything useful, but would prove acceptable for their plans.

The man was kissing beneath his jaw, soft sucking kisses, and sliding soapy hands over his back and Wufei wasn't sure what it was doing for the grease problem, but it felt good. Everything about it felt good, and he let his head fall back, putting his throat on offer. He was delighted to be taken up on it, for that matter, and moaned aloud when Treize bit lightly, teasing him.

"Yes, we need to be in bed now. I can get very far by touch." Treize ground his hips up against Wufei's, pairing it with a lingering sucking kiss, and then pulled back.

"Then let's wash fast." Wufei shifted off of him and grabbed a flannel, soaping it and going to work on Treize, rubbing at every hydraulic fluid stained inch of him.

It reeked of oil and something silicon or metal, it was hard to tell, but Treize had promised the specific mix didn't catch fire at room temperature. And he was chuckling, trying to help as he cleaned Wufei, too, wiping where the grime had stuck with sweat to his skin. It was rather remarkably wonderful, he thought, and laughed out loud when Treize's washing hand skimmed his ribs just right.

He couldn't imagine how he had ended up here, but it was not regrettable.

An unexpected offer of alliance, a half baked plan, a mobile suit almost complete under their noses, an insistence that he wanted to make the world better, not worse. Treize soaped his ass crack beneath the water, smiling that bright sly look that made him ache.

"I didn't mean to like you this much." It came out of his mouth unbidden, surprising him. "But I rather do."

"I'm very glad you do." He leaned in to take another kiss, soft, welcoming, before nudging them both up out of the water with care.

They dripped onto the bath rug, standing pressed together and shivering in the air for a long moment before Wufei reached for a towel and began drying Treize where he stood. It wasn't awkward at all. He felt a little flushed, excited, yes, but there was something in the way the man was looking at him that he didn't have any nerves about it. The rub of towel over his own skin ended up a careful tying of it around Wufei's hips. "That's good enough if we run into anyone getting sandwiches."

Wufei let out a huff of breath. "I doubt we will, and I'm not exactly modest." Still, he did the same to Treize, tucking it in against his belly, fingers stroking up from his navel to cup one pec, the nipple pebbling against his palm. "Mmmm."

Wufei watched the man's mouth go a little slack as he exhaled, clearly enjoying it enough to subtly lean into the touch. The lack of lights was a damn pain for the guards, too, which did mean privacy. Privacy for Treize to use the knot on his towel to pull him in closer, fingers brushing close to his dick. "You have nothing to be modest about."

"Next to you, it's not precisely sizable." Yes, but Wufei was still a little thrilled by it.

And interested to see how it felt. "I'd loan it to you," he quipped, pulling him in for another kiss. "Let's find candles."

"Mmm. Mhm. I can't wait for you to give it to me." Which was true, in point of fact.

The double entendre made the man laugh, and he led the way out to the hallway. The building was vast and mostly unoccupied, and it wasn't far to the kitchen. Wufei began pulling things out of the refrigerator (that, at least, had a light bulb) -- turkey and tomato and avocado and spinach -- while Treize began to cut slabs of crusty bread from a French loaf. There was a chef who came in occasionally, but they survived nicely off the basics. Treize had a weak spot for bread, but the sandwiches turned out nice even if Treize was eyeing Wufei like he belonged on the table as well. Wufei was fairly certain he'd have no objections if he ended up a snack for him, all things considered.

They sat close together, knees touching, and ate. It was a hurried affair, both of them hungry after a long day and also desperate to finish and start touching again.

He was not imagining that the man licked his own fingers when he was done, watching Wufei intently before he leaned in to kiss him again. "I'll find the candles."

"Look in the drawer beside the refrigerator." Wufei was pretty sure that was where he had seen them, if by pretty sure he meant absolutely certain.

Treize got up to pull open the drawer, and made a pleased sound as he gathered them together. He had a lovely ass, too, nicely curved; the towel wrapped around his waist emphasized it. "And oil."

"Mmm." It was a shame they didn't have lube, but what else was there to do? Send a guard? The very idea was just a bit laughable, and he also didn't have the patience to wait for it even if they did go and get it. "We'll need lube if this is going to be a thing."

"I'll put it on the request list." He snagged a bottle of olive oil, and well, it would work, there was no question of that. "Shall we?"

Wufei rose without a word, and when the towel let loose, he allowed it to fall, then reached for the bottle of oil. Clasping it from Treize's hand, he strolled out of the kitchen before him, moving without pause toward the bedroom. They were almost there when Treize wrapped his arms around him, kissing the back of his neck. He was naked, and the press of hard dick against Wufei's ass was a thrill. He'd never been particularly inclined to any one or the other gender; it had always been about the person, and he liked people who were smart with strong beliefs and strong personalities. Treize Khushrenada, as it turned out, was on that list.

It helped that his body felt very good against Wufei's, and that he was inclined to things feeling good, sensual. He palmed Wufei's belly with his free hand. "I want to see you sprawled out on the sheets under candlelight."

"Then you can have that." He could have almost anything at this point; Wufei was still at war, but something about this time felt... it felt a bit unreal. It wasn't a real time, it was set apart, a time just for them, and he wanted there to be so much more of it.

It would end, it would of course end, but he was going to savor this weird bubble from reality, and the way Treize tugged at him, taking him over to the bed to be kissed before any candles were lit.

They paused only long enough for that, in the end, and then they were in the bed again, and Wufei rose over him, kissing those lovely pebbled nipples, a pinkish-tan unlike his own, slightly larger than his, as well, and delightful to pluck at and touch. He quite liked them, and kissing them while they were hip to hip, rocking against one another, was perfect.

Wufei liked the noise Treize made, the way he moaned softly while he rocked up against him. "Oh yes..."

"Mmmm, I like these." His thumbs gently flicked across Treize's left nipple and he sighed. "You're quite delicious."

Treize pressed fingers at the small of Wufei's back, head lolled back so he could look at him better. The touches, stroking and exploring, were perfect, and something about Wufei touching him seemed to make the other man melt. "Keep doing that and I promise to fuck you so well you won't be able to think."

"My mind's already grinding to a halt," Wufei admitted, "because all I can think about is this, and you." Him, and the feel of his cock rubbing against his ass, because yes. Yes, he wanted to do that, he'd always wanted to do that.

He'd played and explored with toys, but like everything in the world he assumed it got better when it was real. "Brains need a rest." Treize said it lightly, and positioned Wufei just gently to better rub against him.

His breath caught when hands landed on the cheeks of his ass, pulling them apart so that Treize's heavy prick could rest between them, and his mind did stop then; ground to a halt, and his body stiffened for a moment, trying to get control of himself, because fuck. Fuck. "Y-yes, oh, that...."

"If you're interested." As if he wouldn't be interested, as hands let go and it was just his asscheeks pressed against it.

"Very interested." When he was married, they'd had quite an adventurous sex life; he hoped that this would be equally adventurous, and definitely as pleasant. "Tell me what you want me to do."

The effect of the flickering candles and the light from the window was quite wonderful. "Whatever you think you'd enjoy most. Perhaps we should get you relaxed first."

That sounded like a man who had a specific notion in mind, and so Wufei sat up entirely and smiled. "Yes. As you like."

The man drew up and flexed a leg, turning Wufei over on the bed so he was beneath Treize. "I want to kiss you all over."

Raising his hands over his head, Wufei gave a long stretch before relaxing. "Yes, please."

It seemed to invite the man to stroke fingers up his sides, to his armpits, smiling down at him before he leaned in to kiss his collarbone. "You are gorgeous."

"You keep saying." It was a bit strange that he did; but sometimes Wufei caught him looking at him and he seemed to be thinking quite hard, considering who knew what. "I think we can accept that you and I are both quite attractive, yes?"

The man's smile turned sheepish. "Sorry, stating the obvious might be a verbal tick for me. It's very true." He started to kiss down, over to Wufei's nipples, hands still petting at his sides.

Wufei sighed and relaxed beneath his touch. "It feels strange when you're so handsome, as well. That is all."

"Ah, I don't think of myself that way," Treize murmured, teeth gently pressing, not biting but a change of sensation before he sucked softly.

Oh. That was lovely and tender, and he shivered beneath it, hand coming up to card into Treize's hair and cup there. "You are. Oh, god, you're beautifully built. Watching you work with a ratchet, the way your arm flexes is... ngh."

"I'll remember to break out the tools if your interest ever wanes." The petting of his sides was warm, possessive, and the sucking was perfection, making his dick ache.

"Mmm, yes, or you could just do this. I promise I'll -- ohhhh." Fuck, that was good.

Just the right amount of pressure, and then the man was kissing down his belly, one hand rubbing idly at his left nipple. Fuck, yes, he did want to see how the man sucked cock.

"Have you done this often?" He was curious, and more than, his thumb caressing at Treize's hair where his hand rested.

It stilled him for a moment, and he tipped his head against Wufei's touch. "Often enough. But I've had all my shots. Have you done this before?"

Wufei shook his head. "I had a wife. And we were... hm. Explorers, I suppose you would call it. We did many things. But this, between men, no."

"Oh, I'd just assumed..." He leaned up on an elbow, looking up the line of Wufei's body with a particularly earnest expression. "Are you all right with this? Should I...?"

Something about it was utterly adorable. He wouldn't confess to that for love or money. "I am very all right with this. You can't think that I would be otherwise." Wufei smirked down at him. "I assure you."

"I do prefer to be sure. Consent is important." He was still looking at Wufei when he leaned back down to kiss Wufei's stomach, mouth lingering teasingly before he scooted down a little further, and his chin bumped Wufei's dick.

It was enough to make him breathless, at least a little. Or possibly a lot. "Fuck," he breathed, and a shiver rippled through him. "Fuck. Yes. Please."

Treize exhaled against his, sounding pleased. "I'll stop if you tell me to." And then he leaned back a little, letting the head of Wufei's cock bump against his bottom lip before he licked the underside.

The sound Wufei gave in response was possibly a bit more than was called for, but it had been a long time, and he hadn't been able to help himself. His ass had tensed in response, hips shoving up a bit before he got control of himself again. "Nnnn."

There was a pleased hum in answer, and Treize used just his mouth to pull Wufei's cock in, starting with a lazy wet slurp that hit every button he didn't know he had to have hit. His hands rested light against Wufei's hips while he arched and moved, and it meant that Wufei felt safe to rock up to it, to enjoy the quite thorough debauchery with which Treize was gifting him.

"Fuck," he breathed, hands dropping to his side and clenching in the sheets. "Oh, _fuck."_ All he could feel was the pressure, the wetness, the suction, and then one hand came off his hips and slipped between his legs to fondle his balls, and his brain might have gone offline a bit. His knees spread wider, offering Treize everything as he moaned and then set his teeth in his bottom lip to keep from getting altogether too loud. It wasn't as if the guards didn't have suspicions, but no one needed to rub it in. Treize's other hand cupped his ass cheek, pulling him in closer or just feeling him up while he sucked, leaned in to Wufei, ass up because he was on his knees and fuck. Fuck, Wufei wanted to do everything, everything at all, everything that was possible, and that would delay Epyon.

It didn't matter.

Not for tonight, anyway, and he was breathing more heavily with every suck, ever fondle, because god, yes, that was intensely pleasurable and he loved every second of it. "So good," he managed to gasp. "Oh my god. So good."

Treize had his eyes closed, relaxed, bobbing up and back, sucking just right, the press of tongue on the underside, goading him along.

It was too good and Wufei moaned, one hand reaching down to tug at Treize. "If you don't stop, I'll come."

The man hummed, and pulled back with a wet, sloppy break of suction, still toying lightly with his balls. "Should I grab the oil?"

He nodded, a shudder rippling through him. "Yes, please."

Treize only leaned back a little, snagging the bottle of olive oil. He shifted in closer, sliding a knee under Wufei's thigh. His dick was bobbing up, hard and flushed, while he poured oil onto his hand. Wufei watched him, turned on by the mere sight of him, never mind what they were about to do. Treize was confident, and that helped immensely with any residual nervousness he might have.

He clearly knew what he was doing, and he was comfortable with it, slicking his dick, then Wufei's, apparently for the hell of it, and then sliding his hand between Wufei's legs to trace fingers against his ass crack. This, then, was something he had wanted, had known he wanted, for quite some time. Probably not specifically from this man, but he'd always enjoyed Meiran's fingers there, and she his, so he was aware of what came next. His knees sprawled wide over Treize's thighs when he positioned him the way he liked, Wufei watching. Just a slow press of one finger into him, to start, the other man gauging how he was reacting, taking him all in.

Wufei's head dropped back on the pillow, mouth opening. That felt quite good, actually, and he rocked his hips into it. It had been a long time, but he had been prepared, and it was delicious. A little ache, a stretch, the man sliding his finger around and brushing over his prostate before adding a second. There was no point in trying to hold back his moans because his hips were rocking and fuck, but it felt so good. So good, the way that Treize was touching him, and he shuddered. "Fuck. Fuck, yes, yes, that's. That's perfect. That's so good."

Treize pulled him in closer, his other fingers clutching firm at Wufei's hip, while he slowly stretched Wufei out. "You feel wonderful. How do you want it?"

"I don't know." Wufei loved this. He hadn't known how much he missed being touched like this. "How do you like it best?"

"Any way I can see you." And touch him, because that free hand was roaming and yes, he'd missed that deeply, idle exploring as a counterpoint to the arousing stretch.

He drew in a deep breath and let it out in a sigh, eyes closing at the sheer bliss of it. "This is good. Or I've never been the one on astride. Not like this, I mean." Riding him sounded lovely, but everything sounded good right now.

"You might like it. Controlling what's going on." Treize seemed to like that idea, but he also seemed to like just where he was, flexing his thighs a little beneath Wufei's so Wufei could _feel_ it.

"Next time," Wufei decided, letting out a huff of breath. "Next time."

"Or this time." He eased his fingers out, adding more slick to his dick, hand still petting Wufei's side.

"As you like." Any way he liked, because everything felt incredible, and Wufei had a feeling that he would enjoy whatever happened regardless.

He stroked fingers over Wufei's stomach, other hand positioning himself to nudge his cockhead up between Wufei's asscheeks. "If this isn't comfortable, the other might be."

What was there to say to that, he wondered, except for to nod and close his eyes, letting out a steady stream of breath as he tried to force his body to relax. When it came, the stretch felt heavy and sharp, and he gasped unsteadily, but he didn't flinch or pull away from Treize. It wasn't bad, just... just a lot.

Treize held very still, one hand stroking his side and the other gently fondling his dick. "It's okay. Not moving until you're comfortable."

"Th-that's good." Good because he could feel his hole clenching down again and again, tight around that cock, and his erection flagged just a bit, but only a tiny amount. The oil slick hand sliding over it was helping immensely, and when he finally felt his body calming down, Wufei shuddered and let out a sound that he couldn't seem to stop. "God, that's. That's."

"Good?" He gave a very tiny rocking motion, hardly anything else, as a test.

Wufei nodded, and oh, that felt like a lot, too, but in a way that was amazing. It was definitely good.

It gained him another slight motion, Treize starting to slowly press in. "I promise it gets better."

With a shudder, Wufei shifted, moving a thigh to grant him better access. "Mm. Mhm." Yes, because that was. That was a little better, yes. "Fuck, you're so big."

Treize stroked fingers gently over that thigh, mouth a little loose and clearly enjoying it himself as he eased in, so slow that It startled Wufei how much he'd gotten in. "Mmm, it's a pain."

The choked laugh that escaped him couldn't be stopped. "Literally." And something about that humor relaxed him, and let Treize in deeper so that Wufei moaned. "Ahhh, fuck." He stopped moving and leaned in to kiss at Wufei's chest, to pet and feel him, and oh, to pull him slowly up onto his lap. By the time he settled, Wufei was pulling in deep breaths and feeling a little desperate, or perhaps more than a little desperate, his ankles locked atop Treize's, heels against his thighs. "Fucking hell."

"Ready to try a shift so you can control it?" The man had enough muscle to turn with them like that on the bed, Wufei supposed, and lie down so Wufei could ride him.

Wufei nodded, because he rather liked where he was right now. He had a feeling that being the one riding was going to be something he liked quite a lot. "Yes."

He felt Treize's legs flex as they turned around on the big bed, and then Treize laid down, bucking up carefully only so he could un-tuck his own legs. Both hands held at Wufei's waist to steady them.

"Holy shit," he breathed, because that was ridiculous and remarkable and fuck, that got him deep, so deep that Wufei felt like he'd already fucked a space in him that no one else would ever be able to fill. "Fuck."

Possibly literally, though he knew it didn't work that way. Treize rocked his hips gently, steadying Wufei with just one hand, while he started to idly stroke his dick again. "Yeah. You feel so good, so tight."

Wufei would lay odds on everyone being tight around that cock, but he put his hands on Treize's chest and began to shift upward before seating himself again. "Oh fuck, yes." Yes, slow and easy, although he didn't know how long he could manage to keep things that way.

He could control it himself, and that made it feel perfect as he got comfortable, got accustomed to the slow burn, the flex of his hips Treize gave when the moment seemed ideal. "Oh, just like that."

Yes, yes, yes, and possibly he was saying that, because everything felt so fucking good that it was nigh on unbearable. "Fuck, fuck. Oh god." That was the last time he managed to curse or encourage in Universal. His language skills failed him the better things got until he was babbling in Mandarin instead, so close to shuddering to a finish. It felt so good, driving himself to orgasm, a wild need as Treize started to fuck up into him, pulling him close, and fuck, stroking his dick, yes, yes, he was right there and clenching around that fat cock as he came in a desperate frenzy, semen spattering over Treize's hand and onto his belly, cursing all the while.

Treize thrust a few more times, a funny hitching motion of his hips, and he clutched Wufei tight, bringing him close for those last few thrusts, leaning up to kiss him, smothering a groan. Wufei slumped down atop him, catching his breath there for a long moment.

When Treize finally withdrew, Wufei winced, letting out a little grunt of noise. "Tomorrow will be interesting."

"I'd apologize, but." Treize sprawled out beneath him, shamelessly- and apparently comfortable as he did so. "Mmm, you feel so good."

"I probably feel so heavy," Wufei murmured from atop him, and then he kissed Treize's shoulder, once, twice, thrice. "I'll get up in a moment and fetch a cloth." Before they were glued together.

"Hmn, I like this." He wrapped his arms around Wufei for a moment, eyes closed in the dim light.

"Being smothered by me lying here?" Wufei asked, but his body still wasn't quite ready to rise and relieve the man, all the same.

"Mm." One hand palmed his shoulder, and the other rested low on his back. "One day I'll try to explain what goes on in my head and you can laugh at me then."

With a hum, Wufei settled, giving a yawn. "Mhm." A nap would be nice. Treize's body might not be as comfortable as the mattress, but he also didn't have the energy necessary to move himself off of him right now, and his ass ached in a way that was simultaneously quite a lot and also strangely enjoyable.

He could do that again. Maybe not immediately, but he could see himself enjoying that over and over again.

He would worry about everything else later.

* * *

The drive to the capitol was silent because Wufei had moved to a proper laptop to continue transcribing everything he could, adding dates and other information. If Treize thought about it, he was possibly the last survivor of a timeline that was gone, and that was strange. There were ethics and... things he had thought about but never pursued because it had been his secret for over twenty years. It had been his very tightly held and cherished secret that one day Chang Wufei would, if everything went all right, grow old. And if they were lucky, he could grow old and happy, or as happy as the man would let himself be.

And they had found contentment together, even if Treize occasionally felt as if he had cooked the metaphorical books.

There had been one more of the strange incidents on the way, and he had pulled over, frantic when Wufei had pressed the heels of his hands against his head so hard that Treize was worried he would hurt himself. He hadn't, but he'd then looked at Treize speculatively, closed the laptop, and announced that he thought he would sleep for a bit on the drive.

Which had left Treize wondering just what the hell had happened, what memory had integrated over. But he let Wufei sleep, and carried all the luggage upstairs before he nudged him awake from the passenger side door. "Wufei. We're here."

Dark grey eyes fluttered open and looked up at him, and that was not the same expression he'd seen when this first started, the difference between his Wufei and the one here a little less obvious. "Already?" It sounded blurry, and he yawned, wide and shameless.

"Already." Treize popped the seatbelt, and offered a hand down from the jeep. Wufei took it, and the wince he gave when his knee creaked was not missed.

"Well that's a position that has to be a great deal more difficult these days," he muttered as they began to walk toward the elevator. He hadn't even paused to check for luggage, so Treize imagined that some part of him was aware of Treize's habit of leaving him sleeping if he fell asleep on a car trek.

The subconscious was working, even if the conscious was still confused. "Hmn? What position?"

And Wufei's face flushed, by god, head dropping to the side, eyes turned away in embarrassment.

He tried not to smirk too openly. "We've discovered a variety of other ways over the years. I threw my back out badly about a decade ago after some poor piloting on my part, so there was about a year where all we managed was blowjobs and spooning, which is quite nice."

"I can imagine." But obviously whatever memory had stirred itself into life had been one of the more athletic attempts they'd made at sex over the years. He was quite fond of a number of those. Once after the war, he'd managed to fuck Wufei entirely while standing up and holding him, which had counted as his workouts for the week, and he'd strained something in his shoulder.

Worth it. He smiled slyly at Wufei as he locked the jeep up with a button press. "Everything is still very enjoyable."

And that flush sure as hell was enjoyable to a truly remarkable extent.

"I still don't understand how you managed to get both me and my mobile suit from the lunar base," Wufei confessed. "I can recall that you did, but I can't remember the how of it yet."

"I made an unreasonable demand while I was still in charge, and my men did what I asked of them. I'd... thought hard about what a turning point might be, or a good point to change things, and thought that was an important time." He led the way to the elevator, tossing his keys.

Wufei walked into it ahead of him when the door opened, and when it closed they were both there alone. "Obviously it was." He looked up at Treize. "I was very confused about all of it at the time."

"We did manage an upset, though." When the war got close, when the wolves were at the gate, they had joined the fight from inside the lines. "How are you feeling?"

Ah, he liked that sloe eyed glance from the corner of Wufei's eyes. "Rather interested in being shown what it's like to enjoy your, ah. Affections?"

He settled a hand at Wufei's back, while the elevator came to a stop. "Ah, the night's looking up already. I was mentally preparing to sleep on the sofa." And he had been, which would have made both of them miserable only two days ago. It hadn't happened often in the ensuing decades following the Eve War, and only a handful of those times had been of their own choice. And those had usually involved an injury that made having someone else in the bed painful, which was a different situation entirely.

But he was honestly braced for… Anything, it was hard to guess. Anything from confusion to anger would have been justifiable under the circumstances, and he was a reasonable man, expecting the worst and welcoming the best. It made him feel a little better personally as he opened the door to the apartment with keys and the swipe badge because they'd had an incident with the media that one time and that was enough.

The apartment was more to Treize's taste than Wufei's, he supposed. They lived simply in the country but sometimes entertained in the capitol. Therefore the apartment was for welcoming others rather than keeping to themselves. On the whole, it worked out for them. Wufei unerringly went into the half bath just off of the foyer, so memories were clearly fickle things that did just as they liked.

That left Treize to unpack things in the bedroom, to get comfortable, because one might as well be comfortable. He had a stiffness in his shoulders from the drive and kept unsuccessfully trying to shake it out. It had never worked in years and years, but he still tried. Old habits died hard. They had left Ferdinand enough food and water in the automated feeder to keep him from destroying the house for a few days so he wasn’t too concerned.

When Wufei wandered in, he was still rolling the left shoulder. It was surprising when Wufei stepped up behind him and laid hands on, rubbing in precisely the right place. "You know," he offered conversationally, "it's strange that my body remembers things that my brain doesn't seem to recognize."

"I'm hoping that it will all settle. The knowledge that I had... softened? Lost immediacy. I didn't lose it, but. It's been a strange secret to keep from you when we have nothing else hidden between us." He tipped his head forward and sighed as Wufei rubbed. "Mmmph. Just there, thank you..."

Thumbs did that thing, the thing that always made it better. "This is all so strange. I left a world where we had just won a war and I was trying to find out more about your memories only to come back to... this."

"The war was much smaller. Not a war so much as a skirmish; and we didn't have those useless peace murder nanites. Winner Enterprises set the standard for self destructing nanites, and Dorothy pushed it through as a requirement, oh, oh right there, hmn, some seventeen years ago." Something crunched a little but it felt good, and his tricep twitched a bit in what he hoped was relief.

"Thank god for that," Wufei muttered, and then rubbed in such a way that Treize thought it would have made his foot pat the floor almost like a dog if he did it again. He did. It was a close thing. "So we didn't go to war, then?"

"Put down a small insurrection when they started to stockpile weapons. It was more of a raid. White Fang still cloned Zechs into a robot, but at least no one decided he should be king of Mars this time." He turned slowly, testing the arm and then looping it around Wufei's waist. "He occasionally asks me about when he was in prison."

Wufei laughed, and Treize always did love the sound of that, even if it was more by way of a low chuckle. "Is he less of a pain in my ass this time, then? Hm. I suppose now we'll have to decide whether to settle his mind about that."

"Ah, he's had… Fewer assassination attempts. A little less..." Treize shrugged, pulling him in close so they were hip to hip, and Wufei looked up at him with that dark grey gaze in a way that spoke of absolute desire.

"Let's decide that later," he murmured.

He took it as permission to lean in to kiss him softly, to enjoy himself and relax a little. To show Wufei what they had been and what they had become, though he felt better for Wufei at least having some memory of them together. Enough that he kissed Treize in return, their mouths soft and damp and perfect in each moment, a familiar tongue slipping between his lips to dart gently against his tongue. There were hands on his upper arms, holding him in just the way they both liked.

It never got old. He could do that for the rest of forever, just that. He did pull them gently to the bed. It was high, just the right height for Wufei to bend over when it interested him to do so, and Treize wondered if tonight might be one of the nights where he was so interested.

Even twenty years later, it was still a sight to behold. He had quite the perfect ass, or perhaps Treize just loved him ridiculously. It could be either or both of those things.

Of course, he'd been fascinated by that ass long before love had set in, so it couldn't possibly all be in his head. "What would you like to do?" He asked it while kissing over to Wufei's ear, enjoying himself.

Wufei hummed thoughtfully, head tilting to the side to give him access. "Show me whatever my favorite thing is," he invited.

He laughed, because there was no good answer to that which wasn't essentially a dick picture. "Being fucked slowly, until you're on the edge and begging for more. I have a wide selection of knee friendly techniques for that..."

"Yes, please." The response was prompt, entirely pleased, and accompanied by a smirk. "I should be angrier about all of this, I suppose, but things have changed and... and the memories are there, they just need to be teased out of the tangle in my brain."

"You can be angry if you need to be," Treize said honestly, still kissing beneath Wufei's ear and letting his hands linger. "You were lonely, and I was lonely, decades apart. And to my delight we get along very well in person. You haven't yet murdered me in my sleep, despite the occasional threat."

Wufei let out a little sound, familiar and yet never failing to make Treize pleased with himself. He was ticklish just a bit at precisely the spot where Treize was touching him. "I can believe that I threaten that," he huffed, and ah, yes, that was indeed lovely.

"Sometimes I can't get out of my head." Treize tugged him closer, onto his lap while he sat on the edge of the bed, just for a long moment or re-familiarization. It didn't do to jump to the main course when the appetizers were just as nice.

"That I've threatened your death?" Ah, that was lovely, with Treize's cock nestled quite comfortably against Wufei's thigh. "Hm. I wonder why."

"I imagine you'll remember," he drawled, pulling at the white flannel shirt Wufei was wearing, a concession to Mar's often indifferent climate controls. "You made me get therapy as well."

"You needed therapy." Yes, well, that had been rather obvious. Wufei's hands were still on him, stroking gently. "I didn't see all of your memories, but I saw enough."

He enjoyed that, as much as he enjoyed Wufei's bare skin beneath his fingertips, and the familiarity of him sprawled over his lap. "When I told you. When I told you, you didn't ask if I was making it up or -- I'd had a blazing row with my stepfather at a dinner party of Dorothy's, and you just. Sided with me without knowing what was going on, and if I hadn't already been deeply in love with you I would've been just for that." He kissed at the side of Wufei's neck, the muscle that was sometimes ticklish and sometimes not.

Tonight, it was most decidedly not, his head tipping to the side and inviting more. "Of course I would side with you. If we got past being on opposite sides of the war, I can't imagine that I wouldn't."

He nipped and kissed gently over the spot, fingers of his left hand dipping beneath the waist of Wufei's pants. "I'd had partners who wouldn't. It's a shocking experience to suddenly find someone fighting your corner."

The hand that then cupped at the back of his neck stroked gently. "Then they weren't partners. Not properly. They were simply..." He leaned back a bit so that he could see Treize. "Company for a time."

"Yes. You've been so much more than that." He palmed the side of Wufei's hip, and just enjoyed holding him, feeling him. "Shall I give you a guided tour of your new scars?"

The way his eyes crinkled with his smile was something that Treize loved because he loved Wufei. "Yes, please. Teach me something I don't know." That was teasing, and Treize appreciated it.

He tucked one of the loose strands of hair behind Wufei's ear, still holding his hip. And then he dragged fingers down to Wufei's forearm, a neat triangle shape that had faded to a very faint white line. "Turtle bite. You were ridiculous and it got infected, and then you turned out to be allergic to the stitching material they used at the hospital. Mari did not get a turtle for Christmas that year."

Ah, he liked that huff of breath. It wasn't a laugh, but it was still a deep amusement. "So she's still fascinated by marine biology, I see."

"She's a little more... field research oriented. Still has her PhD. Little less risk averse, I think you'll find. She and Kathy both adore you." He was enjoying the touch of fingers at the back of his neck, the lingering comfort of easy closeness as he moved that hand on Wufei's arm up, stroking. This might well end up as a lazy makeout session, and Treize didn't mind that.

Wufei did pause, then, though. "Is Sally....?"

"I'm sorry. Yes. I didn't know enough about how it happened. We got her to a hospital, the team did, but we were too late." Kathy had been inconsolable, justifiably so, and it still hurt to remember even though years had passed.

The sigh that earned him was heavy, but Wufei buried his face in Treize's throat, head just resting there on his shoulder. "It was a surprise. She was always so healthy. We weren't expecting it." Because that's the way things were sometimes.

"What... happened in your timeline?" He asked it carefully, moving that hand on Wufei's arm to just hold him.

"Widow maker." The response was quiet, steady. "There were no signs that she was having any kind of heart trouble. Her labs were fine. She'd been tired and stressed for a while before it hit, but we were all tired and stressed. It wasn't strange."

Treize closed his eyes, because oh, no that hadn't been it at all. "How old was Kathy?"

"Thirteen. What happened to her this time?" Treize could feel the way he breathed in and then out again, the faint tremor.

"Kathy was fifteen. Sally died of a crush injury after an attack on headquarters." Treize shifted, lying down and pulling Wufei with him to lie on his side with him, because the one skill Treize had always kept up on was how to read the metaphorical room.

Sometimes he ignored it, but now was not one of those times.

"That's so stupid." It had been. It had been a waste of life and it had hurt all of them the way it was hurting Wufei now.

"It was. But we managed to have her for two more years. She was a wonderful woman." They settled on the comfortable mattress, and he kept Wufei pulled close, controlling his own breathing. "And Kathy is a fine young adult."

"Of course she is. She's my goddaughter." Well. Their goddaughter, actually, and they had taken her in when Sally had died. Things had been difficult for a while, but that hadn't been unexpected.

Mari had helped, through suggestion and visiting, and Anne, although the distance was further. They had survived one teenager, it had helped them survive a second. "She is, and she is still very fond of and worried about you." Losing one parent was hard; losing a second parental figure was impossible to conceive of.

"She was always a good girl." It didn't matter how old she became; she'd always be their girl, Treize knew, even when she was sixty and they were ancient and crotchety.

Treize tried not to think about that too much since he had a decade on Wufei. Then again, he was the one with two functioning knees and good hips, so there was no telling. Somewhere, Sally Po had died of a heart attack in her early fifties, and that was. Crazy was the wrong word, but sad. Miserable as a crush injury. "I hope, on the whole, you'll approve of how things went."

Wufei's hand on his chest was comfortable, stroking in a soothing motion. "Me, too."

"I'm glad you were curious and determined enough to do what you did. It gave me a whole new chance." To live a life different than what had been fated down for him.

Simply to live had been quite remarkable. "Mmm." That gentle stroke was turning sleepy. They should get up and undress for bed.

He leaned up enough to tug Wufei's pants the rest of the way down, and shrugged out of his own clothes in the most low effort way possible, not wanting to break that contact. "I imagine it's exhausting, trying to reconcile everything."

"Mmm. I think it was the road noise earlier that ended up making me sleep. It's tiring." By the time he crawled back into bed, Wufei had sat up long enough to tug his shirt off one-handed. When he settled down, his hand was on Treize's chest once more and the stroking began again, gentle and soothing.

There was no reason not to enjoy it, and if the headaches or attacks grew worse, they were now deep into the central part of the capitol, and it was much easier to go for help.

They would be fine.

* * *

Kathy's shorts were covered in red dirt, and Wufei wanted to laugh. He didn't; just gestured her over and told her about it, so she leaned over his lap so that he could dust off her bottom, both of them quite serious about the matter until Treize began to laugh behind them.

They had a summer cottage down by Elysium Island; on the other side of the shore from it, where it was less desired, though access to the water was always desired. Treize had been savvy, quietly buying a couple of side by side properties without saying anything and then springing it on both Wufei and Sally as an excellent idea for their half of the summer block leave rotation.

It was somewhat better than leaving Mariemaia to be bored and loose in the capitol in the summer, given that two of her friends from school had joined the Filme modeling agency and Treize was rather unhappy about that.

The audible click of a photo being taken came, and Sally laughed across the way. "I'll be showing this to prospective suitors one day," she teased both of them, and Wufei did laugh, then.

"Will they get close enough for suitors?" Treize held out drinks for both him and Sally to take because it was hot and sunny on the edge of the water; there was probably a splash of something alcoholic in the lemonade.

"He was terrible to Charles," Mari declared from her lounge chair. "He answered the door with _'who do you think you are?'_ "

Wufei snorted. "He wasn't good enough for you." No one was good enough for their daughter, never mind that she wasn't technically his daughter precisely. "I still think he isn't."

"Men are ridiculous," Kathy sighed, and glanced at Wufei with an impish little girl grin. She must have heard that half a million times.

"Yes." Treize sat down on the grass, and leaned back on one palm, looking around. Across the water they could distantly see the conference center, but there were still a great deal of the young thick woods around them, unmolested. "We are completely ridiculous. What happened to the ball you had earlier?"

Kathy shrugged. "George has it." George was the part dachshund mutt that her mother had allowed her to keep when she had found it in a back alley one afternoon, one ear flopped back, head tilted to the side to observe them moving through the area.

Every toy in existence was George's. "George? C'mere, boy, what, oh..." Treize stood up, still carrying his own glass of, yes, that was gin in the lemonade, Wufei was sure of it. "Dammit, I think he's got an animal." George looked at Treize skeptically and tried to turn around and dart off with whatever it was -- probably something dead that he wanted to roll in, at a guess.

Treize gave steady pursuit, but George went around the back of the house and Wufei wasn't going to interfere just then. There was another "Dammit!", and Sally put a hand over her mouth, trying not to laugh.

Kathy stood with her hands on her hips. "Can I have juice?"

"Of course, sweeting." There was no question that she could have whatever she liked. Wufei never bothered telling anyone that he didn't spoil the girls; it would have been a lie and he knew it.

"What has he got, Father?" Mari yelled.

"Cat! I'm going to see if it's salvageable." Probably in the kitchen sink, but Wufei supposed that was what cottages in the woods were for -- occasionally cleaning up wildlife. There was a barely audible ungodly sort of howling, so perhaps it was going to be lucky.

George came running back their way, panting and happy, to barrel and hide beneath Sally's legs. "You wretched little boy," she chuckled, reaching down to rub at the top of his head. He promptly came out from under the chair and flopped over, shamelessly demanding belly rubs, which were promptly provided.

"I'm not sure whether to tell him he's a good dog or a terrible one," Wufei murmured.

Kathy seemed happy to have George back, and plodded over to him to pet the belly, too, while still demanding juice. It was better, he supposed, than repeating 'dammit!', but that was a matter of time.

Mari set her book on the lounge and uncurled herself to go see what the fuss was, Wufei knew, as he removed the lid from Kathy's cup and poured juice from the nearby pitcher into it before replacing the sippy lid. It didn't matter that she was five; they'd discovered that it was much easier than cleaning up spills.

Sally leaned back on her chair to look over at Wufei. "Should we help, or leave them to it?" Kathy hadn't seen anything being mangled and she wasn't upset, which was a fine line for a five year old.

"Leave them to it," Wufei decided, giving Kathy her cup and reaching down to rub George's belly. He was so excited that his back legs kicked and his front paws reached to clasp the hand closest to them, panting with delight.

Sally watched everything, relaxed and looking happier than Wufei had seen in a while. It was good to take a break every once in a while. "How're things?" She made a gesture with her head back to the cabin.

"Good." It had been a surprise to the world at large when the Gundam pilots and OZ had fallen in together after everything, and even more of one when Wufei and Treize had, ah. Taken up company. As it were. "Things usually are."

"Good. It's only a little weird having both of you as employees," she teased. "If you ever did have a falling out, we'd have to build defensive walls in the office. The mess with Maxwell has reached a height, I think."

That had been a disaster. Duo had taken up drinking as a hobby since then, and half the time Wufei thought his coffee cup was probably a good third whiskey. "No, you wouldn't need defensive walls. One of us would probably commit murder before you had them built."

"That is not reassuring." Sally chuckled when she said it, glanced to the back door to see Mari standing in it.

"Father's going to take the truck and take the cat to town. He's coming back with pizza either way."

"And a new cat, I expect," Wufei responded, voice like the Sahara. "Galahad was ancient even when you were just a girl. I think he's missed having one."

Kathy looked tender, wide-eyed and a little sad. "Would he like George? We can share," she offered, and Wufei's heart melted.

"No worry, sweeting. He'll bring back the cat, I'm sure of it."

Sally was still hiding a smile behind her fingers. "Mm, did it have everything still?" She was leaning back, watching as Mari meandered closer.

"Hmn, wasn't sure about one of the feet." Mari was looking a little stunned as she sat down beside Kathy. At least no one had to have a talk with her about predator and prey instinct; they watched enough nature documentaries. "Hey, why don't we find the ball and play fetch with George for a while, huh?"

Kathy's smile was sunny. "Okay, sure."

Sure, and that left Wufei in vague horror about the foot. That poor cat.

Sally shrugged. "It's the nature of dogs."

"Father said it was too dumb to live, so. We probably have a new cat now," Mari agreed, while Kathy ran off across the lawn to retrieve the ball for throwing.

"Most likely," Wufei agreed, and sighed. "Well. It could be a great deal worse." He rather liked cats. He liked George, too, who was also kind of too dumb to live sometimes. Anything that enjoyed rolling in something dead and smelly probably wasn't the smartest of beasts.

He leaned back into his chair and watched Kathy come back, rolling the ball at Mari, who caught it, grinning. They had a wonderful weird rambling family group, and he adored them all, even if his husband had run off with a maimed cat at the drop of a hat.

* * *

Treize woke when Wufei smacked him in the arm. "You ran off with a mangled cat that wasn't even mangled!"

It took him a moment to think about what Wufei was referring to, and oh, he was that far along in the timeline. That wasn't so bad. "Hello to you, too. There was blood everywhere, how was I to know the dog had lost a tooth?"

Ferdinand was a delightful cat. He played fetch like a dog, disliked all visitors, and had terrified George for a good decade before George had died in his sleep after having had a very good day of seeing everyone he loved and having one too many treats.

Wufei huffed out a sound of amusement and laid his head on Treize's shoulder. "That dog. Let's have a dog next." Mars was still short on pets, but it was fortunately flea and tick free.

"We'll get something bigger." He curled his arm around Wufei's shoulders, and tucked his head in to kiss the top of his head. "Won't have to worry about him getting stuck under bookcases."

With a kiss against his collarbone, Wufei settled. "Ferdinand would probably appreciate the company." He'd been a kitten when they'd gotten him, but he was fourteen by now, getting elderly. Wufei could be right. It could be quite helpful to them all if they had a new pet to ease things when Ferdinand finally went.

"Ferdinand misses having things to intimidate." He stretched a leg, enjoying the slide against Wufei's sprawled legs. "Did that one hurt?"

Wufei shook his head a little. "No. It was more like a dream, truth be told. I wasn't entirely sure that it wasn't, to start."

"We still have the cabins. Kathy uses them the most when she's not visiting. You've been very pleased with the cottage and our workshop." He'd been personally very pleased with it, and the tiny house he'd had stuck on the property so Kathy or Mariemaia could visit and have privacy. Anne had thought it was ridiculous, how he kept living in small spaces with Wufei, but it was comfortable. They liked being close, and it was so different from his life before, where everything had involved houses with fourteen bedrooms, a ballroom, and a library, or something else equally preposterous. Wufei would have moved into them with him, but Treize didn't think he'd be entirely comfortable in any of them.

"That's nice." He sounded sleepy still, a bit drifty. "That memory was much easier."

"Some will be harder. I almost lost you on a couple of missions. There's been a couple of assassination attempts. That's how we met Quatre and Triton's latest adoptee. And Sally..." He closed his eyes, and kissed at Wufei's temple, still finding it delightful to curl up against him. "I love you."

Wufei hummed. "I rather think I love you, too." Which was quite nice to hear. "Wait. Latest adoptee?"

"Well, they adopted him after he shot me in my shoulder. I was damn lucky he wasn't that good an assassin. He's very friendly with Noin and Zechs's son, and... this is better with pictures, I think, in the morning." Because petting Wufei in the dim light that filtered in through the windows was one of his favorite activities, and doing it under the covers was even better. Warm and easy and gentle, and he loved it. The affection was infinitely better than anyone could ever understand.

The huff of laughter on his throat was lovely. "Of course they would adopt an assassin."

"You adopted a would-be dictator," he teased gently. "Which we are both grateful for. And forgave the head of OZ. I think the pilots have become masters of taming the lions of the world. It's just one more creaking joint in the end."

"Particularly my left knee," Wufei agreed. That knee was attached to the thigh that was sprawled across his own.

Sometimes Wufei slept with a pillow under just the joint, and he had tried an assortment of fancy solutions over the years but always ended up going back to a regular pillow. "In this timeline, you wrecked it throwing yourself into danger on my behalf."

"In the last one, I landed badly trying to make it back down the front of a mobile suit nursing a concussion." He yawned. "It feels acceptable in its current position. For now."

It was three in the morning, which was a weird time, but Treize was mostly sure he could get back to sleep. "There was only the one concussion, back in... I think 197." It had been a year before they'd talked about setting up the new outpost because of the spread of asteroid work beyond the Lagrangian points, and the lawlessness that went with it.

Mobile suits had been necessary just to protect themselves then.

"Hm. I didn't have one in my original timeline. Not then. It was a bit later, when we started fighting Zechs's clone." Which sounded ridiculous and was. "It's utterly preposterous, clones." And obviously it offended him.

"I'm amused they cloned Zechs and not me," he murmured, idly petting Wufei's upper back. "But glad they didn't. I would have found it a violation."

"Maybe that's why no one did," Wufei responded, and they were so comfortable with one another. It was more than Treize had expected to get when the memories returned, truth be told.

"I thought when, if, you ever came back to yourself you might reject me, this. I'm very glad you're... you." And perhaps because they did talk about those things, randomly at night and in the quiet moments.

Wufei's hand kept up a slow, steady petting, head resting peacefully against him. "I'm not unreasonable."

"It would not be unreasonable if you did that, though." He was enjoying the petting, and nothing felt... wrong, like it was anything other than a random sleepy conversation.

"Of course it would be." Wufei's thumb rubbed gently at his collarbone. "I read a great deal before we came to the capitol. It's apparent that we're quite happy together. I'm not stupid enough to destroy that."

It wasn't a ringing endorsement, but it wasn't damnation, either. He would take it, he decided. "It's been a very good couple of decades. Challenging, but I have no regrets."

"That's good to know." The murmur was quite sleepy, and it was obvious that Wufei was going to drift off again.

"Love you," Wufei yawned, and then he was asleep.

He'd have to see how Wufei felt as he processed more memories, but yes. Going back to sleep seemed safe and good. Treize closed his eyes and drifted off not long after him.

* * *

Everything was a disaster.

Their main building was nothing but rubble. There would without doubt be other agents pulled out of it before the night was done. He wasn't concerned about any of them; perhaps he should be, but he didn't have time for that. He had a fifteen year old goddaughter sitting at his feet, her face streaked with tears, her head on his knee in search of comfort.

There were other Preventers down at the ground site, including Treize, and they were much more able to deal with the security situation. He was... right where he needed to be.

"I can't believe..."

His hand came to pet at her hair, soft and golden brown with blond streaks, curling over her shoulders so much like her mother's did. "I know," he murmured, and she buried her face against his thigh. "They'll be with us soon. The surgery is still ongoing."

"Nothing is supposed to happen to her!" She was protesting and angry and crying in turns, pressed against Wufei and struggling to try to keep it together.

He wished that almost anything else had happened but for Sally to be struck by falling concrete when she had been trying to rescue other Preventers who'd fallen in the explosion. He wanted to say that he knew, that he understood. That it was terrible to suffer that sort of loss. Instead, he continued to pet her as she began to cry again. Dammit.

There was the question of what to do with her in the immediate aftermath, and what to do... if Sally was okay, if she wasn't, if she didn't come out of surgery. He didn't know and there was no one to tell him. He was just going to have to ride on instinct.

Thank god Treize was there to deal with everything. If he hadn't been, Wufei didn't know what he would have done. As it was, they sat and waited for what seemed like forever, and then waited even longer.

Eventually, Kathy cried herself dry, and didn't get it under control so much as she ran out of the energy to do it anymore. And then his datapad rang.

One handed, he fumbled it out and flicked a thumb to answer it, being greeted by Treize's dusty and dirty face. He was obviously exhausted, and there were streaks where sweat had run down his face, making a paste of the dirt that landed on him as he went. "How is it?"

"Ten dead in total, forty missing and there's a couple trapped but alive being worked. There's another eighty or so in local hospitals and everyone else is here working with the local fire and police. We have everything under control and a lead on who did it. How's Sally?"

That was the sixty-four thousand dollar question, wasn't it? "They're still in theatre. No one has come out to advise of anything." Good or ill, and it was incredibly worrisome.

"We can put Kathy in Mari's room tonight. I'll order pizza in." He brought a hand up to wipe the back over his forehead. "I'm going to get back to it. Just wanted to... see."

"Be careful," Wufei told him. The last thing he could handle would be Treize getting hurt. The current situation was horrible enough.

"I will be. Text if you just go home or if I should meet you there." He lifted a hand to wave at the camera, and cut the call.

Kathy lifted her head, and she looked so tired. Wufei's heart broke just a little. "I don't want to go home, I want to stay here."

"I know, sweeting. It might be a long road, though. You'll need all of your rest and energy." Which was true. It was exhausting, waiting for someone either to die or get well, and he was worried that it would be the former and not the latter.

He just had a feeling, a fear. It was that feeling that had curled in his chest as Meiran leaned into him in those fields. He couldn't shake it, and perhaps it was because it was the worst possible outcome. Perhaps he was just a pessimist at heart, utterly incapable of optimism in the face of such a nightmare.

Or possibly he was just being pragmatic. It hadn't looked good when they'd pulled her out of the debris.

Something had looked desperately wrong with her hips and her stomach. He knew what the human body was supposed to look like, and it wasn't that. Kathy sniffed and sighed, and then there was a doctor in the doorway. She looked tired and sad, and Wufei knew that face.

He braced himself for the worst possible news. Even if Sally yet lived, that wasn't a face that said there was a great deal of good expected, and he hoped that she wouldn't give them any sort of false hope.

"Mr. Chang, I am so sorry." Oh. Oh that said it all, that told him everything else that was going to come out of her mouth, and Kathy was frozen.

Wufei nodded, and the motion felt slow, as if it were made through water. Arrangements would need to be made. People would need to be called. Sally was gone. Or would be. "Did she...." The immediate shake of that head made him draw in a breath, deep and unsteady. Of course not. He had known that it was bad.

"If you'd both come with me." She seemed to be waiting to walk them to wherever they had made Sally comfortable in the hospital. He had faith that they had cleaned her up at least a little, because they knew he had Kathy there.

When he rose, he held a hand down to Kathy, helping her up from her place on the floor. Her face was pale, and it was clear that she was lost, so he gently pulled her in against his side when she was standing. She needed guidance and he needed... something else to be happening. But he shouldered on, and together they followed the doctor down a hallway and into a quiet corner of a room where Sally was swaddled with blankets, an oxygen mask over her face and drips sliding into her arm.

Kathy sobbed, and dropped to her knees beside the bed. Wufei winced in sympathy. "Momma," she whimpered, and his heart broke. "Momma!"

"There was too much damage." The doctor's face was tired. "We're going to make her comfortable, but the likelihood of her waking again is very small."

Fuck, that hurt, and he drew in an unsteady shuddering breath. "Thank you."

They could be there. They could sit there with her until she passed because it was what she would have done for any of them. He didn't know if she would have wanted it done for her, but that didn't matter. It was too late to ask now, so he pulled a chair up close beside Kathy where she wept, and settled in to wait.

Time passed. She never again became lucid, not really, though she did lift a hand to pet Kathy's hair and mumble something fuzzily against the oxygen mask. It sounded like Minnan, but he had never been good at it and when they wanted to have a semi private conversation they defaulted to Mandarin. Given how much morphine was in her veins, it probably hadn't even been a word.

And then she went still.

They had turned off the alarms, but Wufei could read the screen as well as anyone and he knew what it meant. Kathy had long since fallen asleep, exhausted from crying and too much everything for the day. He supposed he should wake her, but for the moment he just sat there and buried his face in his hands.

It took time for him to get himself together enough to exchange information with a very kind nurse, to wake up Kathy and take her, numb and leaking tears, downstairs where they caught a taxi back to their apartment. His and Treize's apartment. The city was a wash of sirens while they waited outside in the dark, and he could see the spotlights and flashes from headquarters.

He needed to check in, but Sally was dead and Kathy was an orphan and he was so very tired.

They made their way up to the apartment in silence, and Wufei thought he should get some acetaminophen for Kathy. She'd cried until surely her head must ache, or it would tomorrow. Could he give an adult dose to a fifteen year old? Mari had always more or less taken care of her own needs, being wildly independent, so he didn't know. Not really. Probably he could. Treize would say _'what does the bottle say?'_ But Treize had been a major or a colonel or something ridiculous by fifteen and had already had a minor drinking problem and smoked. Quibbling over one tablet or two or three wasn't something he bothered with.

But Kathy had been raised with care, surrounded by it. She had stayed over sometimes because there was a mission, because Sally was busy and Wufei was home. She didn't just stay alone and feed and care for herself, and now was not the time to start that. "Your uncle will have brought home pizza," he said, and it seemed so unreal. So impossible. It always felt that way, the grief and the shock of someone beloved dying. "I'll find some painkillers for you."

"Okay." She lingered close on the elevator ride. As soon as they entered the apartment, Wufei could smell pizza, fresh hot bread smell, meat and veg. The news was on, volume low, and Treize was standing in front of the screen, chewing on a breadstick. He had washed up somewhat, but there was still a smell of char and ash in the apartment.

Or maybe it was just on Wufei. He needed to wash, too. "Kathy. Here, we'll, let's sit down. Food will help."

Her eyes welled with tears. "Nothing will help." And when her voice broke, Wufei damned near broke, too.

Treize still walked over, and tugged her gently to the table, sat her down and put a plate in front of her, without saying anything. There were a few gashes on him, deep scrapes, and Wufei would ask later. "I'll go shower," he advised, and left them to it. He wasn't as filthy as Treize had been, but bad enough.

There was a bathtub in the master bathroom, but there was also a shower that stood separate. The floor was wet when he got in, and the air in the bathroom was still steamy. There was a relief in the hot water and familiar soap, in being clean and being able to let go a little. So what if his eyes were red when he finally stepped out of it? No one cared, at least no one in their apartment, and so he dried himself and dressed in pajama bottoms and a t-shirt before wandering out barefoot, hair still damp. He did feel somewhat better, at least clean, and the smell of ash and smoke was washed away.

Treize had turned off the news, swapping it for some nature documentary about flowers, which was excellent background noise because flowers, unlike most mammals, wouldn't have their mother killed and eaten on screen.

And speaking of killed and eaten, Ferdinand was sitting on Kathy's lap getting awkward petting. Even if he was just in it for the chance at pizza, the wretched little thief.

"There was a secondary collapse at the site. Winner and his men were shoring up the site. I'm going to go back in a few hours and see how it's progressing. Anne's already on a shuttle, but that's still a wait."

Wufei nodded and took the plate Treize handed him. The pizza wasn't hot anymore, but it was filling, and that was acceptable. At least he handled cheese significantly better than he handled milk for whatever reason. "I'll have a lot of arrangements to make. I appreciate it."

"They pulled Marquise out just before the site was shut for safety reasons. We're down to thirty missing." He didn't tell Wufei what the number of dead were or who they were, though he knew. "Secondary ops center's been set up in the hangars."

"How is Marquise?" Who was a right regular pain in his ass. How did he always manage to be the thorn in his side? It was dark magic. He might as well have stood there and declared _I do what I want_ to everyone every single time he was given an order. Treize had joked that he'd always been that way, and that as a commander, he'd always been a soft touch to him.

And that was what happened when one spoiled a child soldier. Apparently.

"Oh uh. Going to be a bit before he's up and walking." Treize was glancing at Kathy as he slipped a breadstick onto her plate.

She gave him a wan sort of smile. "Thank you." She'd barely eaten anything thus far.

"Good. That's. That's good." God, he was an idiot, asking that.

"Milk?" Treize offered, halfway to standing up to get it out of the kitchen.

"Yes, please." Wufei already knew that he would bring almond or oat milk, because otherwise it ended with him in the bathroom instead of in the bed where Treize liked him to be. He glanced at Kathy. "Is there chocolate milk?" There should be. Treize enjoyed it enough that they often had it.

"Yes. Yes there is..." He headed into the kitchen, and he would come back with chocolate milk if it required mixing or not. He did eventually hear the clink of spoon on glass, and then Treize came back with two glasses of chocolate and one oat milk for Wufei.

His spouse was ridiculous and caring and Wufei didn't even know where to start with that, but he was deeply grateful. "Thank you."

Kathy was looking at the chocolate milk, a frown on her face. "I don't have a toothbrush," she said, voice edged with... something. Wufei couldn't quite identify it. It was probably the shock, he thought.

"It's okay. Mari has spares and tomorrow we'll get a bag for you," Treize said very firmly. They had already talked about everything years before, that Wufei was next in line for custody of Kathy if something went wrong. Anne was the secondary backup plan.

He just hadn't thought they would ever actually need a plan. Not really. Oh, he knew that it was wise and he knew that they needed it. He knew that their lives could be dangerous and difficult. He knew so many things, but at this particular moment, nothing felt as if it made sense. Nothing at all.

Treize went into Mari's bathroom to take care of that, carrying and drinking his own milk. There was nothing to do but put one foot in front of the other.

"I'll make arrangements tomorrow for the funeral," he told Kathy. They didn't have any family that he knew of, so she probably didn't know of any, either. A lot of people would want to pay their respects, though, so he would make sure that was possible.

Kathy nodded again, numbly, and Wufei supposed, hoped, the next few days were a blur for her. It wouldn't make the pain any less, but it was understandable if she was numb for a while. There would undoubtedly be bouts of crying and misery, and a fair amount of staring into space. He'd done a lot of that when his father had died and it was still a blur of time where things had never actually solidified into anything that made sense even after all this time. Perhaps that was how it affected anyone who'd had a parent who had loved and cared for them.

Treize literally wouldn't understand, though he was generally very good and caring and that would be enough. "I've set pajamas and a toothbrush out for you in Mari's bathroom," he announced when he came back.

"Thank you, Uncle Trey." She hadn't been able to say his name when she was small, and the name had stuck.

"You must be tired." He sat down again, his mostly finished glass in his hands.

Blinking, she looked across at them, and it wasn't a surprise when her eyes filled with tears again. Wufei glanced at Treize, who was already moving. He sat down beside her and pulled her into his lap, rocking her as the tears came hard and fast with heartbreaking sobs.

He didn't say 'it's okay' because it wasn't. It wasn't okay at all, and of all of the losses they had suffered through the years, it felt the most senseless. She hadn't even gone out fighting, she'd been in her office. Wufei would've been there with her except he'd been out at the hangar because they had a late shipment of parts and he had wanted to make sure it wasn't missing anything. Again.

Reaching up, he covered his eyes, bumping his glasses up above them. It was just so stupid. It wasn't fair, and listening to his goddaughter make those heartbreaking sounds across from him was simply unbearable.

When she seemed about to run out of tears, Treize jostled her gently and started to stand up with her. "C'mon. We'll get you ready for bed, okay? Sleep will help."

Nothing would actually help, but they would manage somehow. Wufei stood, too, and wordlessly handed her a napkin to wipe her face and blow her nose because surely that would be a bit of relief, and it seemed to have been when she gave a final sniffle. "Okay."

Treize waited patiently to walk her over to the bathroom, and wandered back toward Wufei after she closed the door. "I already messaged Mari."

"Is she coming with Anne?" Wufei had managed to settle down again, glasses back in place, glass of oat milk mostly finished.

"She saw the news and her first instinct is to head toward danger." Treize sighed, grabbing another piece of pizza from the box.

There was no helping the smile he gave as he chose another piece for himself, as well. "She is related to you, after all."

"Yes, but I don't need her traveling into a potentially unstable..." Treize waved a hand slightly. As if he didn't also command a cult of personality that Dekim had tried to leverage.

"There's nothing we can do about it, on the whole." Less than nothing. They'd raised a strong stubborn daughter who would stand toe to toe with either of them and argue, unflinching.

But she'd be there for the funeral, and that would be important, so Treize wouldn't argue, just sigh. He leaned on an elbow. "Nothing I'd planned to do. There's... a lot to be done."

"And I'm so tired." Utterly and completely exhausted. He had no idea how he would manage tomorrow.

"Bed for you. I should have thrown melatonin drops in your milk, too." Treize started to pile everything into one box to stick it into the fridge. "I'll go check on her."

Wufei looked up at him, and he was so grateful. "You're acceptable," he declared. "I suppose I'll keep you."

"That's good. I'm rather attached to you, too." He leaned in to hug him for a moment, and then a brief moment lingered, turned longer than he had probably meant it to be. It felt good, felt wonderful just to be held, and he buried his face against Treize's belly because he could.

"Zechs is missing a leg," Treize declared very quietly, in answer to a question Wufei had forgotten he'd asked earlier. He stroked fingers over Wufei's back. "And we're missing the financial analysts."

Fuck, fuck, fuck, and he closed his eyes, staying where he was. "All of them?" And god alone knew who else. Their number would account for most of the dead and a fair few of the missing, he thought.

"All of them. Might've just been the positioning of the bomb." Treize petted at his shoulder, and tugged gently at him. "Bed. Let the carbs pull you under."

They'd probably all have nightmares during the night. Wufei allowed himself to be pulled to standing, and wrapped his arms around Treize's waist. "All right."

* * *

Wufei woke up sad and lingering that morning, but Treize didn't immediately press about what memory might have aligned that time. He made breakfast instead, and coffee, and put on a newscast from public radio that neither of them were likely to shout at. Wufei had grown fond of it Earthside.

Their coffee was imbibed in the usual manner, both of them quiet, Wufei still mostly asleep. It had always taken him a while to get moving in the morning, and this one was no exception to that rule. After the second cup, he leaned back, feet tangling with Treize under the table. "Zechs only has one leg."

"Oh." Treize rubbed one foot idly against Wufei's shin. That had been, yes. That would explain the sadness. "He has a robotic replacement, now."

Wufei gave a faint sound of amusement. "Is he less of a pain in my ass?"

"Mmmm, no. No." Treize smirked jauntily, quirking his eyebrows at Wufei. "He was an ass at our wedding. It's the first thing anyone mentions about it."

"Oh, dear god." Wufei covered his face with one hand. "I don't remember that yet. Would it be better to know beforehand?"

"It was very funny. He was in a visible snit the whole time." Treize cradled his coffee mug in both hands, spinning the cup back and forth. He liked Wufei's look of amused shame. "I'm happier that you remembered me, then Sally and Kathy, first."

Wufei sipped from his cup again. "Considering Zechs is the least important thing for me to remember, I'm pleased by that, as well." God, but it had been highly entertaining. Zechs had literally stomped a foot at one point. That was before he lost it, of course.

"He stomped a foot. Anne slapped him. Anne was delighted, a little drunk, and was showing off her then new boyfriend." The tangle of legs felt so good, and he felt like he had watched the sun come in through the window behind Wufei's head hundreds of times. "Kathy is a fierce young adult."

Wufei smiled at him. "I'm glad that she wasn't..." Utterly destroyed by the loss of her mother. They both were.

"She... hmn, yes. She's a very good officer. A very good pilot. I know we'd all be happier if she somehow didn't follow in her mother's footsteps." But that wasn't their say and would have been beyond hypocritical.

Wufei's big toe rubbed over Treize's soothingly. "So long as she's happy and we aren't at war again, I can't argue with her. Truth be told."

"We're not allowed to be at war. You've finally retired," he noted. "Early, I might add, so, as someone who will remain unnamed remarked, we can enjoy our golden years together." Ah, he did like that smile. He particularly liked the way that Wufei leaned in and kissed him. It was warm and familiar and perfect. It felt right, like his Wufei, and like things might continue integrating okay, or at least peaceably. He only pulled away when there was a knock on the door.

"I texted Kathy last night. That's probably her."

The look Wufei shot him said it all -- exasperated because he was clearly worried enough to text Kathy and also grateful because they always enjoyed seeing her. "Fine. You get the door, I need more coffee."

"I didn't say what was up, just that we were coming into town a couple of days early." It wasn't as if he could articulate and explain everything that had happened. _The timelines are coming back together, Kathy._ That wouldn't work.

"Right." So that meant Wufei wouldn't say anything, either. It was for the best, all told.

From here on out the world was new and unknown, and Treize was excited that he would still have a brilliant partner to face it all with.

The mundane still existed, and he tended to that by opening the apartment door. They were still casual from bed, but she had lived with them. Men in sweatpants and pajamas was nothing new in her life.

He did have to keep reminding himself that she was an adult, even if she felt like someone they needed to protect. "Kathy!"

"Uncle Trey." She greeted him warmly, stepping in to kiss his cheek. "It's good to see you. I'm glad you decided to come into the city. Did you leave Ferdinand at home?"

"I did, which gives Wufei an excuse to keep this a short trip." He welcomed her in, a familiar dance, and closed the door behind her as she came in. "Come in, I was just pouring coffee. Wufei's on his second cup."

"Thank god. He's incoherent before that," she replied, kicking off her shoes and pushing them into the small rack that held their own. "And I do know how much he prefers being off and permitting himself with you."

"We've been enjoying ourselves out in the back end of Mars. Workshop humming and all." He tried not to explain things that didn't need explaining though there was an urge to pre-explain, to... cover, paper over things, and that was a bad habit from the old days. It had never worked. "Toast?"

"I'd love it." Kathy padded toward the kitchen, moving in to catch Wufei in a hug from behind that had him sloshing his coffee just a bit. "Wow. Maybe Uncle Trey should start giving you caffeine free."

"I'm fine," Wufei replied querulously. "I was just still sleepy."

And also from a completely different timezone. Treize moved to get Kathy a mug, and then ducked around them to snag the bread. "How've you been?"

"Okay," she assured him, slipping into the chair beside Wufei. "Tired. We're still sorting out some of the stranger things from war's end. If anyone had told me five years ago that we'd be dealing with clones..."

"Clones at war with us. Clones of people we last saw at the Yule party. Why clone someone who's perfectly alive and well? What did Winner think of the system that was in use?" Quatre was an interesting fellow, had been for years of their interaction, the pilot Treize found to be least truly innocent.

Kathy shook her head. "You'd have to ask him. He just made that face he makes, the one where he clearly disapproves of something or someone, and then turned to Doktor T, who naturally read whatever twitch of eyebrow there might have been and hummed in agreement."

Wufei grunted, annoyed. "I know the routine."

"It never gets old if you view it as a comedy routine." He went about getting plates down and passed her a mug of coffee once Wufei surrendered the pot.

"They are quite funny, if you think about it."

"They've been doing that for over two decades. What they are is quite annoying." Wufei sniffed. "Doktor T and Professor W, honestly."

"Says Master Chang," Kathy teased.

"I know better than to challenge that title, or else I'll end up flat on the floor again." He gave Kathy toast first, but then brought over toast for himself and Wufei, settling in across from him. "I think they were arriving later tonight, and with the solar flares, I bet they'll be delayed until the morning."

"Most likely." She reached and tore a lower corner off of her toast, popping it in her mouth. Kathy always started at the bottom and moved to the part. She thought it was the best part and she saved it for last, just like Wufei. Watching them both do it made his chest warm. "But they'll be right along after that, I'd imagine."

"Do you have plans for the day?" Sometimes she liked to just drop by and say hello when they were in town, and that... that was the kind of thing he'd never had in his life before Wufei, before his strange second chance had unfurled so much opportunity.

"Mmm, yes. Stay here and annoy you," Kathy teased. "Or alternately, go out and get groceries for you. If I leave it to Uncle Wufei, he'll bring back ice cream that will put him out of commission for the better part of an evening. I'll never understand how lactose intolerant people stare death in the eye and dare it to ruin their day, but there you are."

"And very often it rises to the occasion," Treize smirked at Wufei, getting comfortable and stretching out his legs. "Where do you want to go for dinner tonight?"

Wufei hummed in thought. "Nicola's, I think. The eggplant is delicious.

Kathy leaned in, coffee cup held between her hands. "Oh, Nicola's. You know how much I love the baba ganoush, never mind the shawarma."

He was glad Wufei had picked a restaurant that was still open. "There we go. That's better than me trying to pick what pasta to make." And it reassured him a little that not too much had changed in bad ways from Wufei's timeline.

Or maybe he just remembered it. Maybe the timelines would safely merge and the only net cost would be Zechs's leg.

Then again, he hadn't thought to ask if Zechs had both of them before. Maybe he hadn't.

"Mmm, and there will be baklava." Wufei seemed a little dreamy thinking about it.

"This is how you can tell that home cooking gets old after a while." He winked at Kathy, sipping at his own coffee. Wufei's foot nudged against his and the smile he turned on Treize felt natural and right.

"Your cooking is fine. But you don't make eggplant and baklava as good as Nicola's."

"I don't make either, so yes." He let himself relax a little. "Do you have stories from the office to regale us?"

That set off a good half hour of the best gossip. Kathy knew everything about everyone, because she knew how much they enjoyed hearing about office politics and the ongoing back and forth between accounting and operations. The head accountant frequently made the head of operations pull out his hair and enjoyed every second of it, except now the head of operations was not Wufei. So it was extra funny for Treize to have that few steps of remove, to hear stories that made him feel better about his own retirement and Wufei's early retirement. Everyone was fine and the world wasn't ending.

It also left Wufei feeling a bit smug. "Tendo never gave me that much trouble."

Kathy's glance was affectionate. "That's because you knew better than to ask her how she did anything, Uncle Wufei. It's unfortunate that Iida-san is so very by the book. I think that just annoys her sufficiently to make him want to suffer."

Wufei gave a snort of amusement. "She knows better than I would how the books are supposed to look. So long as we got everything done in short order, there was no point in asking questions when the answers would have given me a headache."

"That old cliche, ignorance is bliss." Treize leaned an elbow on the table. "Remember the budget cut four or five years back?"

"I still have no idea how she made up for the shortfall and I'm not stupid enough to ask," Wufei responded promptly, and then looked a little surprised that he'd known the answer.

"So you don't want to hear about the poker game beside the fromagerie I like off of eighteenth street. Noted." He twisted his coffee cup between his hands quirking an eyebrow at Wufei in that way where Wufei wouldn't know if he was putting him on or telling the truth.

"No!" Kathy protested. "No, no, I do want to know. Uncle Trey, that's just teasing."

"Oh, no, don't tell me," Wufei insisted. "It will just give me nerves about where she might have gotten the money."

"Oh the scandal. You know the Capitol Pilot would love to publish that." Kathy had seen enough glimpses of behind the scenes, but she still believed in the Preventers. They all did.

"Pfff." Wufei sniffed. "The biggest scandal they've written about is our wedding."

It made him weirdly warmly happy, that whatever knowledge he had about that was not filtering back in in a traumatic way. He tried to not smile in response, and probably failed. "The reception wasn't any worse than most family reunions, so they should really try harder."

Kathy's eyebrows rose. "If you mean a family reunion where someone throws a strop about how their father had no right to remarry."

"We spared you by never taking you to an extended Catalonia-Khushrenada family... whatever one might call it," he advised dryly. "I probably witnessed that exact fit at least twice."

"Brawl," Wufei whispered loudly from across the table. "They all end in brawling as if they were from New Canada."

And their goddaughter threw back her head and laughed.

"There's a reason new Canada calls Europe the old country. They got it from somewhere. So what's a jealous ex and a bit of slap fighting by comparison?" That made her laugh harder, just on the verge of tears.

"Oh, I have missed you both." Rising, she leaned in and kissed the top of Wufei's head, then came to do the same with him. "You do make everything entirely too entertaining."

"You miss the emails full of terrible news that end in 'have a nice day'. I just hope we trained enough of you to carry on in the appropriate fashion." They had, he knew; he remembered the people who had a sparkle in their eye at the office, who could be both serious and light in the good grim determined ways.

"Naturally," Kathy agreed, seating herself once again. "Bertie broke his leg in a training exercise last month and sent me a message that ended with _your faithful three limbed training supervisor_ for some reason. They've gotten even more obscure since you both left."

"That's strangely the best news." Obscure and weird, and delightful, an office culture that embraced the fact that they had clone problems and occasional nanites to worry about.

But not as badly as the last timeline. "How did Bertie break his leg?"

She waved a hand as she lifted her coffee cup. "Oh, he tripped over his own shoelaces after he'd made it through the entire obstacle course."

The workman's comp paperwork that would have to be filed for that, all for Iida. That was what came with being the boss, while Treize chuckled and finished off his own coffee. "Oh the irony. Bertie did always have a good sense of the absurd."

"It was a compound fracture, even." Kathy shook her head. "Too much time spent in orbit, I think. You'd suppose we would have better answers about that by now."

"Oh, the bone density changes, yes. You'd think it would've impacted Yuy," Treize mused. He wasn't entirely terrible with medical things, but it wasn't his field, and mostly he just read up on things like the symptoms of a heart attack, or sicknesses Mari or Kathy brought home or to the office when they were young and germ prone.

Wufei shrugged. "I always assumed that quack Doctor J had infused his bones with Gundanium. Considering how hard it is to break him."

"The only one I ever could find proof of a degree on was your Master O. He was the only one who was an actual doctor." Kathy had heard it before, but it never didn't amuse Treize. Smug bastards, the doctors.

"Of course he had a degree. _We_ are not slipshod or half-assed on L5."

That sniff was delightful, and Kathy also seemed to feel it so. "Oh, Uncle Wufei. You never fail to say that."

He leaned his foot against Wufei's ankle, smiling to himself. "I want you to call Winner slipshod the next time you see him."

One black brow rose sharply. "Do you think I won't?"

"Ugh, no foreplay at the breakfast table, you heathens." Kathy drank the last of her coffee. "I do have to go into the office for a while this morning, so that's clearly a sign that I should leave both of you."

"We'll do dinner at 1800? In there?" He glanced between them both for confirmation.

"Mmm, yes, please. Shall I meet you there or do takeout and meet you here?" She glanced at both of them.

"There," Wufei decided. "Nicola might decide to dance."

"We'll make it worth Nicola's while." And if he was very lucky, they would have a bustling table with even more people if the shuttle wasn't delayed.

"Right. I'm out." Their goddaughter stood, repeated her kissing on the top of their heads, and let herself out of the apartment.

He stood up only after a while to lock the door out of habit, letting Wufei have his inner brain space. They were very good about that, giving time and space and enjoying the silence together. "She's wonderful."

"We did a good job," Wufei mused. "Well. Other me." He leaned back in his chair. "I'm half tempted to spend the day napping to see if I can catch up to myself in time."

"I'd join you." There were books in the master bedroom and there was nothing quite like a warm bed and a slightly chilly room to just put him down.

Or give him an excuse to be naked under the sheets with Wufei.

There was something sly about that twitch of mouth. "Then do. I'm going to go back to doze and see what else I can remember. It comes more easily then."

He tidied the plates into the sink to deal with later, still lingering... a little close, a little careful and watchful, yes. "How can you nap after coffee?"

That earned him a shrug as Wufei stood. "I've always been able to do it. It's an oddity of nature." Reaching out, he put a hand on the ties of Treize's pajama bottoms and tugged him closer with a gentle touch. "Did... hm. Other me not have this gift?"

Treize tilted his head back thoughtfully as he stepped in closer, let his hands fall to Wufei's hips. "Well. Usually not so blatantly, but I suppose yes, now that I think about it."

"Mmm. Family strangeness," Wufei told him, looking up into his eyes. "My grandfather could drink it right before bed and then fall into bed snoring within twenty minutes."

"Snoring, hmn?" He leaned in to kiss him, waiting for acquiescence, a suggestion, a clue.

A tilt of the chin gave permission. "Like a ridiculous cartoon," he murmured, and closed his eyes as Treize kissed him, mouth soft and tasting of coffee and toast.

He tugged gently, brought hips close and pressed against Wufei, body to body comfortable and familiar. "I fell in lust with you just as you are now, you know."

"Oh?" The tilted face was familiar and affectionate. "I'm mostly certain that I was actually covered in dirt and grease at the time."

Ah, so he did remember that rather explicitly, then. That was nice.

"Very true. I have a thing for handsome men cussing about my poor designs." Both times, if he thought about it. Wufei covered in grease for him, coming and going. And comfortable. He couldn't quite pinpoint when lust and interest had turned into love, exactly, but he had noticed it watching Wufei read some weeks later. "Nap?"

"Yes," Wufei agreed, taking his hand and leading him back toward their bedroom. "We'll see if it helps with the memories."

Treize could think of a few things that would help with the memories. They were still in pajamas, and it was easy to pull the sheets back and crawl in, lingering close and kissing occasionally. He didn't think he could sleep after coffee, but laze? Absolutely, and Wufei was warm and he was grateful that he wasn't more upset about the situation.

The bed was still rumpled a bit, and Wufei's eyes were sleepy even as he pulled Treize in close to him. "Perhaps you should show me some of those positions that are easy on my knees and your back," he murmured.

"I can show you your favorite." He nudged him gently, kissing him as he eased Wufei into the bed. The creak of his knee sounded with a pop that said it would be a good morning for it.

"That sounds like an excellent thing."

"I wince every time I hear that," he murmured, moving around Wufei to sit behind him and coax him to lie in the bed that way, back pressed against Treize's front. "Kathy even tried a dog joint supplement on you."

"Since I'm not a dog, I can only imagine it didn't work well enough to suit her." Ah, but he liked that amusement, liked the way Wufei curled into him easily enough, letting out a sigh as if the arm around him was a great relief.

He liked the idea that holding Wufei was a relief for them both. And it was an excellent position for leaning in to kiss the back of Wufei's neck. "Tastes too much like tuna. Even I thought so."

"Oh, the thing that makes you burp fish taste." Wufei shivered, his hand going to cover Treize's. He was ridiculously comfortable there. It was a bit of a whiplash change for it to be that easy, but perhaps not so much so. Some things came with age, including an easier acceptance of some things.

He hoped it was settling better in Wufei's mind; he hadn't minded the previous night, though discussion had derailed them. This was nice, the weird sunlight of Mars filtering through the curtains as he curled close against Wufei's back, nuzzling against the silken fall of his hair.

"That feels good," he murmured, and shifted so that his ass pushed into the cradle of Treize's hips in a motion that was as familiar as the rise and set of the sun.

"Yes, it does." The hand that Wufei wasn't holding was perfectly free to ruck up Wufei's t-shirt, palming his stomach. "You still feel exciting, every time."

"You know." That was conversational, Wufei's fingers stroking against his wrist. "There was only Meiran before. Never anything else long term." Which Treize did know, actually. "So technically, I haven't actually done this. Even though I have in fact done this." There was an edge of teasing in his voice.

"All the more reason to draw this out nice and slow." He liked the lingering touch on his wrist, liked the way Wufei stretched his foot and pressed in against his dick through pajama pants.

Wufei let out a soft huff of breath, tilting his head so that he could look at Treize over his shoulder. "That's what I was thinking."

"When I swapped into your body, I didn't even have time to enjoy it properly before Kathy sussed me. I think I've made up for it in the years since." Just a slow suggestion of fingertips sliding down his stomach beneath the fabric of his pajamas, teasing over the sensitive skin just above his dick.

He recognized the sneaky smirk that flitted across that mouth. "I might as well confess that very few days passed when I didn't enjoy yours. The additional stress of figuring out what machinations you might have... ohh." Oh, because one finger had gently brushed against his cock and then gone back to stroking his belly, the slight curve of it familiar beneath his touch.

He liked to imagine that if he ever had to, he could sculpt Wufei's body out of clay with his eyes closed. It would probably look very much like a Picasso if he ever tried it, but all of his favorite spots would be in perfect perspective. "Good. I probably needed it."

"It helped. That and all of the baths." A shiver crippled through him and he gave a soft noise that was infinitely familiar. "Hmmm, while this position is probably pretty great for our various issues, I think I'd rather be able to kiss you."

He nudged Wufei gently, sliding his fingers up. "Turn around. You banned me from sneaking up behind you at work."

"Because every time you touch me like that, it makes me want. Erections in the work place just seem unprofessional." He did turn, though, bad knee against the mattress, which probably wouldn't work well in the long run. It did make it a lot easier to kiss him, lips soft and sweet, tongue slipping inside to tease at Treize's tongue. "Mmmmm."

He pulled Wufei in close, careful not to bump his knee, enjoying the slow friction of tongue on tongue. It went right down to his balls and made him want, made him want to stay in bed with Wufei all day.

"I seem to remember that my favorite position was riding you," Wufei murmured against his mouth, hand idling its way down, pulling them into alignment. "I kind of think it would be worth the pain."

"Hmn, pillows might help." He did love the friction and the view of Wufei, and sometimes they just laid in bed close with Wufei half on him. The fingers were making it hard to argue against. "And it gives you all the control."

"Mmmhm." Yes, and they were both still clothed, but Wufei's mouth was on his throat now, hot and slick, and there was just a bit of stubble rasp, enough to make him drop his head back to give him better access.

"Oh fuck." That was less calculating for slow burn and right to the point, and he shivered. "Just like that, fuck..."

"If I had known you sounded like this in bed, I might have made the effort to hunt you down more often." Yes, and there were fingers stroking over his nipples. "I can't say I regret any of the decisions made in this timeline."

He liked to hope, egotistically, that he had made the world a better place the second go around, created less havoc, been less deeply embedded up his own ass. There were nicer things to have up there other than his own head. "You brought so much good into the timeline."

"I brought you into it," Wufei murmured, and shifted to kiss him again.

"Gave me a chance to redeem myself and enjoy your company." And it was so strange to just relax and talk about it after so long. And delightful to kiss Wufei, even as he let his hands wander to pull up Wufei's t-shirt.

It ruffled his hair coming off, and Wufei pushed him onto his back, crawling over him despite the creak of his knee. "This is more than acceptable." He tugged at Treize's t-shirt in return, and he felt it tugging its way up from beneath him.

He leaned up to help it along, and reached to palm Wufei's left nipple as soon as he could use his hands without getting in the way. "The view is quite good."

"Oh." That was a breathless little sound. "That is, I like that. I like that very much." Just the easy brush of his hand, and in a fit of pure mischief, Treize tweaked it just so, and watching his eyes clench shut and his body jerk in pleasurable reaction was well worth it.

"It's wonderful. Twenty five years, and I don't think we've done everything yet." It hadn't ever gotten boring; there had been dips in interest with stress, but there was always an interest and a comfort in Wufei's mind, in his body. "Hmn, now what would you not know..."

Ah, that smirk was one of his favorite things. "Well, I'm betting we can't do the sort of acrobatics I was dreaming about, so.... everything short of that."

"I keep trying to talk you into a sex swing in the cabin." Treize leaned up to steal a kiss, fingers drifting to repeat the tweak. He liked the feel of Wufei's fingers on his stomach, steadying himself.

"Mmm, and how do we hide that from our children?" Which was the answer he always gave, amusingly enough.

"You let me fashion a trap door in the ceiling, this eventually becomes and engineering problem that somehow causes our deaths, and this is why we do not..." He kissed the side of Wufei's neck, and then laid back down, hands idling to Wufei's hips and the edge of his pajama bottoms. The erection tenting the front was a very pretty picture. "Have a sex swing in the cabin."

Breathless laughter followed. "Possibly we should build an A frame that can be dismantled and left in the shop." Wufei leaned down to kiss him again as Treize began to gently push the flannel off of him.

He liked the way this Wufei thought. "Oh, I like that idea." It only took a little wiggling on Wufei's behalf as he pushed the fabric down slowly, Wufei's hard cock springing free.

"At least then we probably won't cause our -- oh. oh. -- our own deaths." Wufei shifted and his knee made a distinctly bad sound. "Ow. Fuck."

"Ah, that was what I was afraid of," Treize murmured, sliding a hand down to ease Wufei's thigh back and leg straight to take the weight off his knee. "You hurt it worse in this timeline than your original one, I think."

That scowl was more pain than he would have liked. "Dammit."

"Lie down and I'll think of something." He coaxed Wufei to sprawl atop him for a moment, rubbing gently against his upper thigh, above the knee joint. "The recliner in the living room?"

Wufei made a face, a bit sulky. "Well. Yes. I'm offended." By his own knee, and Treize didn't bother hiding his smile.

It was easier to enjoy Wufei's disgruntlement. "I know. You could get a robotic replacement, but just talking you into a normal replacement surgery's been hard."

One dark brow rose even as Wufei sighed, the light massage helping. "If it means we could have better sex, I can't see why I've been reluctant. Then again, anesthesia is always dicy."

"Hah, you found the old argument. Never mind how many times you've been anesthetized due to injury..." He shifted his hips slightly, enjoying the press of Wufei as he rubbed gently.

With a hum, Wufei relaxed again. "Mmm, yes, but until it stops working, I suppose we can make do with things. Let's try the recliner in the living room instead."

"Yes. In a minute, though, don't want you to stand on it too soon." He turned his head, and stroked the fingers of his other hand against his hip.

"And you can't toss me over a shoulder anymore," Wufei teased. Treize didn't think that was something he'd actually missed, thank goodness.

"I could try, but I don't want to end up in the ER." He lingered, kissing Wufei a little before he started to sit up, both of them moving carefully now so as not to aggravate old injuries.

"That wouldn't be a good way to end the day, no." Wufei managed to shift so that he was sitting on the edge of the bed, head tilted to watch Treize. "This is an odd future, but not unpleasant."

"What's odd about it?" Treize had lived through it the long, slow way, so he stayed comfortable as he sat up, sliding an arm around Wufei with easy familiarity.

Wufei shrugged. "The fact that you're alive." That was obvious. "That being said, I'll freely admit that you were..." He paused, cheeks flushing. "A fascination for me long after you had died. So I can't pretend that this is completely unexpected as a result of you living."

It was a complicated thing to work through, and Treize was just grateful Wufei hadn't been angry. Even with his knee crunching. "It wasn't easy. We had our ups and downs, but mostly, we do get along. I haven't done something unacceptably stupid in some time."

"Ahh, so no trying to throw yourself into the closest possibly suicide mission, then." That quirk of mouth was delightful. "I'm not sure about the genetics, but that certain seems to be a favorite action for anyone with a Yuy in their family tree."

"Trying to avoid suicide missions, break bad habits of self sacrifice and under communication." He slid his fingers against Wufei's side and subtly steadied him as they both got off the bed.

"Trying to avoid suicide missions, break bad habits of self sacrifice and under communication." He slid his fingers against Wufei's side and subtly steadied him as they both got off the bed.

He caught a scowl as Wufei looked at his knee. "That is significantly worse," he muttered.

"Hmn, maybe we should sidetrack sex for a long hot bath." Treize leaned to kiss his temple. "You did additional damage to it on a mission."

That seemed to be well under consideration. "Yes, please." The desire to fuck was there, yes, but they were old enough to reconsider immediate pleasure in the face of difficulties later. Besides, if they took a bath then they would have the option of more comfortable pleasure later.

"I'll help you to the tub," he offered, steadying Wufei. "And there are anti inflammatories. You know, Kathy didn't suspect a thing."

"Or she's waiting to tell us she knew all along." The limp was definitely there, but he was being careful about the amount of pressure he put on Treize.

"Hmn, that's a terrifying thought." He shifted to take a little more of Wufei's weight. "Come on. I thought one timeline disturbance would be enough. And we dodged the whole operation Mythos mess. You should see Heero with a beard."

"Oh thank god." That was a little fervent. Spending decades watching over a frozen capsule clearly hadn't been a task he cared to repeat. "Is Duo still a drunk?"

"It took a while, but he's been sober for about a decade now. It was touch and go for a while and it didn't stay worked out with Hilde." They were happier apart, and that was something he recognized from past relationships of his own.

"Is he happy?" Duo had always been Wufei's friend, and he had wasted quite a lot of worry over him until he finally got hold of himself. It wasn't character weakness, god alone knew. They'd all seen more than enough atrocities to want to drink themselves blind.

"He is." Treize half hesitated for a moment as they crossed barefoot into the bathroom. "He's back on Earth with Relena and Heero at the moment."

Wufei's mouth was an adorable o and his eyes were wide. "Really now?" He seemed to consider that and then nodded thoughtfully. "I always thought that seemed like something that would be more stable than any variations thereupon."

He sat Wufei on the edge of the tub, and leaned in to turn it on. "Oh, well it might've been less of a surprise for you but I have found this endlessly fascinating. It took a while to work out, and of course his son and he are not talking currently."

"All they did before was argue. It's a shame, though." Wufei let out a steady sigh. "I worried about him, but he wouldn't listen."

"You were about ready to murder him in the office just before he started to pursue sobriety. I think you finally straightened him out, but you never did tell me what you said." He added a rose salt melt into the bath, beneath the tap, and it was perfectly warm.

Leaning in, Wufei caught him and pulled him in for a kiss, tongue lapping easily into his mouth. "Don't know. I never said the right thing before."

"You say the right thing all the time." He curled an arm around Wufei's shoulders and leaned in to kiss him better.

"Mhm," Wufei agreed, and possibly their bath would do dual duty for pleasure and relaxation.

There were definitely worse things.

* * *

"You have got to stop drinking."

"Are you practicing the conversation you're going to have with tall and salty later tonight?" Duo frowned at him from the other side of their shared desk.

Wufei felt his brow furrow. "No. I'm talking to my idiot friend who has whiskey in his coffee cup."

"Okay, I'm not the one with the full fucking walk in booze closet at my house, okay." Duo sat back and took a sip of his coffee. "And it's not whiskey."

"No? Whatever it is, you could probably use it to strip paint. If you think I don't recognize that considering I have a full fucking walk in booze closet, then clearly you're drunker than even I expected." This wasn't the way to start the conversation, but he'd tried every other way imaginable.

And it needed to happen. It was a miracle Sally hadn't fired him already, Hilde had left for a second time and taken Duo Jr. with her. There had been a lot of discussion behind the scenes before he'd decided to intervene. "Who the fuck are you to say anything about bad habits."

It was exhausting. "I'm your friend and your partner. And I actually give a damn about you and your liver, although god knows the way you're going I may well be the last person who does." He was also prepared for whatever shitty thing Duo decided to spill at him. This could only end in blood and tears, no matter which way it went.

"Fuck you. You... you have a perfect fucking life, buddy, and now you get to get on your weird gay high horse and preach? Look, I'm okay with that asshole but I'll never forget what they did to my home."

Wufei understood that. He did, to the core of him. "They did it to mine, too," he said quietly. "I lost my wife. You know that. But the thing is that no one is asking you to forget." He folded his hands together, leaning in. "What I'm asking you to do is keep living to spite them. And in order to do that, you're going to have to quit drinking before it kills you."

"Again, really fucking easy for you to say when you have, just..." Everything, yes, sort of. He had a job because he was fit for little else but something as strange as the Preventers, and he had a partner who had moved on him in the midst of the war when nothing had made sense, and he had a family. Sort of.

"When I have a partner and a daughter to raise?" Wufei looked him in the eye. "You had a partner and a child, too, and your drinking cost you them. It's going to cost you everything else if you keep on. There's no point in sugarcoating it, Duo. I'm your friend. You and I have a lot in common, and I will never be anything less than honest with you. You're drinking yourself to death. Do you think killing yourself will somehow show something to the people who tried to kill you and who tried to destroy your colony? Because it won't."

Most of them were dead, and the rest didn't give a shit. The worst of the ones who were still alive would be sort of excited about it.

That got him a deep frown. "It makes everything easier."

"It makes everything harder. If you're saying it helps you deal with the pain and the depression and the anxiety, there are therapists and drugs for that. It's hard work, but you've never been afraid of that." Wufei leaned back in his chair and sighed. "You need to stop drinking and do something good for yourself for once. It's not too late."

Duo was making a face at him, and maybe it was progress or maybe not, but he set his coffee cup down. "How the fuck, man."

"Same way you do everything else. Throw your whole heart into it." Duo was still Duo, even when he was drunk. "I know maybe it helps to, to anesthetize you. But there are better ways. Healthier ways." Ways that wouldn't end with him in a casket. "I'll help you. You know that."

"Fuck." Duo leaned back in his desk chair. "Fuck. You know I start when I get up, right?"

"Yeah," Wufei agreed. "I know." That was the reason they were having this conversation. "Come on. Let's get out of here."

"Where are we going?" He stood up, and grabbed his work jacket. His uniform had drifted in compliance, really badly over the last few weeks.

Wufei cast him a rueful glance and half smile. "I lined up appointments for you just in case this went well."

Duo pulled a frown, and seemed to go still for a moment. "Momentum, huh?"

"I've never been one for half measures and neither have you." He folded his arms over his chest. "I'll be with you every step of the way for as long as you want."

"Yeah, but this is..." Immediate, yes, and he could halfway see the wheels turning in Duo's head and the calculation that he could've pushed the conversation out for a while. That it wasn't now.

Except why start later?

"I've already made all of the arrangements with the proviso that they might be unmade." In which case, Sally probably _would_ fire him because he was coming to work drunk now, and things were bad. Very bad. "In case you didn't agree."

"Hmm." That was very much like the sound Treize made when he disliked something but also saw the sense at the same time. Wufei didn't relax, per se, but he did fish his keys out of his pocket, and toss them at Wufei. "You're driving."

And that alone was enough to make him grin, feral and sharp in a way that he didn't usually. "We're taking my bike. I'm sure you can hold on well enough."

"Man, you drive like a maniac." And Wufei had his keys, which was good safekeeping and later they'd make sure it got moved appropriately, like Duo was on a long work trip. "Okay."

"Hey." Wufei paused, the stairwell door closing behind them. "I'll be glad to have my friend back. I know you'll work hard and do your best."

"I dunno. I, I'm all alone again, I'm a shit father. I don't know." He shoved his hands into his jacket pockets as they walked.

Their shoulders brushed together. "You're not alone. You've always got me, you know. All you can do is your best going forward. Besides, your kid's just like you. That's why you're oil and water. You blow up in similar ways." He couldn't make any promises as to whether Junior would eventually come back around, but getting sober was the first step either way.

There was no fixing it while Duo stayed drunk and sometimes just disappeared. He couldn't imagine quite what the home situation was when Duo was drunk and there was arguing. "Yeah. Maybe. He just tweaks all my buttons."

His bike was parked in its usual place close to the wall. He'd brought two helmets with him, just in case. "I seem to remember you tweaking everyone's buttons. Obviously he got it honest."

"Yeah, I'm not good with kids. Maybe that's all." Or it was hard to be good with kids and alcohol made it shittier. Duo took the helmet Wufei handed to him.

"Nobody is good with kids," Wufei told him, putting on his own helmet. "We all just sort of fumble our way through as best we can. You had the misfortune of being orphaned." More than once. "It makes it harder."

"You had parents, though. That has to help." And his partner had the opposite of parents, a sucking vacuum that Treize consistently held up as an anti-guidebook. His childhood hero had been a man who let him drink as a child.

Some things couldn't be fixed.

"Yeah." Wufei thumbed the mike system in the helmets to life as he straddled the bike. "But Treize's home life was a disaster. His uncle was giving him alcohol before he was even ten. Good rule of thumb is that if his family would have done it, we don't."

"Wasn't that Dorothy's father?" Duo liked gossip, and it kept them distracted from where Wufei was taking him. That was fine, he could buy himself time.

Duo got on behind him and Wufei kicked the motorcycle into life and made his way out into the strange Martian sunlight. Treize objected to it, but Wufei rode it anyway. "Mhm. So you can imagine what that home life was like. Although Treize says he was actually a good father, I have questions." After all, she hadn't flinched at stabbing Quatre. That had ended in a lost kidney.

They talked occasionally, apparently, political things, so who knew. "Hilde's got a higher bar for standards and shit than any of us then."

Well. There was that possibility. Wufei thought that she had probably gotten tired of waiting for the guy she married to come back, if the truth of it were told. "I couldn't say. What I can say is that I'm here for you."

"Yeah." Duo lapsed into quiet for the rest of the ride, and Wufei wasn't sure what his mind was rummaging up but Wufei could only hope Duo hadn't talked himself out of it by the time they got there.

The rest of the day ended up being exhausting -- seeing the doctor, going from there to three different therapists before Duo found one he thought he could deal with, deciding that taking a few weeks off for rehab was a good idea. By the time Wufei went home, he was emotionally wrung out and not looking forward to an entire month sans his partner.

But. But he could handle the workload, Sally would help him balance it, and at least he might worry less. Or he was going to keep worrying, which was more likely.

And home was quiet, it seemed. There was the low drone of local capitol news on, and he could smell something vaguely Italian.

With a sigh, he took off his shoes, settling them beside the others, and moved to the kitchen. He didn't bother pausing -- just walked himself up behind Treize and thumped into him lightly, face against his spine. "Hi."

"That good a day?" He was stirring pasta to keep it from sticking, and the canned marinara warmed up well.

Wufei sighed. "Mmhm. He listened, so we took the day. I've been all over hell and gone."

"But he listened?" Treize sounded mildly surprised. "You just missed a day of incoming dignitary planning."

"Sounds like a good day to miss." He kissed the nape of Treize's neck. "He listened. He even agreed to go to rehab, which was more than I was hoping to get." Truth be told, he'd expected to be told to go fuck himself.

"That's great!" He turned slightly, halfway to embrace Wufei. "You think he'll stay in rehab?"

"We can but hope." They were all invested in Duo's recovery for a number of very good reasons, the least of which was that Wufei would be a miserable grump if he had to break in a new partner. Losing one of his friends if he kept drinking would be so much worse than that.

And such a stupid death. Death in battle, death in the line of duty, but death because of slowly wasting away to alcohol? Or an accident that was completely preventable… "Well if he gets loose, I don't know if I would be any use in helping to hunt him down, but…"

Ah, this was the reason they were partners. "Thank you. I appreciate the offer." Wufei hugged him tightly. "I'm going to wash up and change into pajamas." Today was definitely a day for that.

It felt a little like his brain was leaking. There had been so much goddamn paperwork that if he had been half drunk and stressed and all by himself he didn't think he would've finished it -- bailing seemed much easier.

"Mm. Probably a good call."

Leaning around, Wufei raised his face and kissed the corner of Treize's mouth. "I'm keeping you," he murmured, and let loose of him to go and shower, stifling a yawn.

He was in the living room when Mari got the front door open, and dropped her stuff in a huff in the hallway. "Father! I'm home!" She sounded short and sharp and significantly cranky.

"Oh good, I don't have to report you missing. Breadsticks?" Treize's attitude had been consistently blasé, which, as Duo had said, the standards were low.

"No." Whatever had happened, her day sounded as if it had been just as stressful as Wufei's had been, so he rose to go and check on her. "I'm not hungry."

"You're a growing girl," Wufei noted as he padded into the foyer. She got cranky when she went without eating. Then she forgot food was a solution to that miserable feeling and it got worse. He didn't expect her to brush right past him on the way to the kitchen.

"Mm, here, have a breadstick. Pasta's almost done."

Strolling into the kitchen, he took the breadstick and kissed Treize again. "I'll take this to her and try to get her to eat. It's probably just been too long since she ate last."

"It was so much easier when I could give orders to the children." Treize muttered that under his breath as he passed it to Wufei. "Thank you."

Wufei raised an eyebrow. "She's got the temper of a redhead. Isn't that a thing?" He was fairly sure that it was.

"It might be?" Treize didn't seem inclined to take that joke in any useful direction, so he let it go and moved to feed their growing monster.

He could hear her moving around when he made it to the end of the hall and so he knocked lightly on her door. "Mari? May I come in?"

"No. I'm changing." Well that was good at least, if she was giving up on the school uniform for the day.

Okay, there were some things he didn't need to see. Sort of like he'd panicked when he'd realized that they would have to explain menstruation and buy her first bra. "I can wait."

He heard her give a strained huff from the other side of the day, halfway to an, "Argh." It made him try to imagine what her father had been like at the same age. Or try to remember himself at that same age. Thirteen was a supremely awkward age for everyone. Even Meiran had found it difficult, and she'd been incredibly self-possessed, so it was no wonder Mariemaia was huffy and difficult.

He waited outside, and eventually she did open the door, just as his mind was starting to wander. He could have asked Treize to remind him what thirteen looked like for a Special, but he specifically did not want to know and could guess. It was the sort of thing that made him frown and pet Treize in bed, while he swore it had been _fine._

And that was why Treize and Mari both had therapists.

"I brought you a breadstick. I figured you needed at least a few bites." Because after one or two, she would realize she was hungry and wanted to eat. It was a familiar routine.

She gave him an angry scrunched up expression, and sighed angrily at him when she held her hand out for it. "Fine."

He handed it over, waited for her to take an angry bite. "Rough day?" he finally asked, trying to keep the question mild and easy.

"You wouldn't understand." That... he was sure had been said in exactly that tone since time had begun. She stepped back, and kept chewing on her breadstick, and meandered over to her bed to get one of her notebooks.

"I might." He offered it lightly, hoping that she wouldn't take it for prying. "I was your age once, you know."

"So?" She sat down, chewing on the breadstick, and sniffed, in a way that indicated he wasn't sure what was coming next.

"So you can talk to me if you want. I might not get it entirely, but it might help to talk about it." After all, he'd been promised in marriage by that age. It was definitely strange.

"Dad was an adult by now." Well, no, and that was the problem. "You were an adult by now. I should be able to do things without permission slips and it's not my fault I lost it."

Wufei blinked. "Is it too late to replace it?" He was sure that the trip the school had planned wasn't until next week. "And we weren't truly adults by your age. People just treated us as if we were. It was... strange and difficult in a different way."

"I don't know." She rubbed her eyes with her wrist, and sucked in a breath. "I can't find it and I don't want to ask for a replacement because I should be able to find it and I don't know what to do."

Reaching out, Wufei pulled her into a hug, kissed the top of her head. "We'll ask your father. For all we know, he's put it somewhere safe. And if that doesn't work, I'll call the school tomorrow and we'll say the dog ate it."

And that was when she burst into tears.

That was exactly the thirteen he remembered, yes, perfectly. The wild swings and meltdowns over the oddest things that wouldn't have caused a meltdown under normal circumstances.

"Shhh, shh. It will be all right." What a one-two punch today had ended up being. "I promise. We'll take care of it."

It didn't surprise him when Treize lingered up into the doorway, because he was a natural eavesdropper. There was no way to have a conversation in the office at an audible level without him overhearing it if that was his mood.

"It will be all right. I took a photo when I signed it, remember?"

Mari sniffled, her face pressed against Wufei's shoulder. "I had forgotten."

"There you are. Problem solved. We'll do a little work on the photo, print it out, and it will be fine." It was probably hiding in one of the pockets of her bag. He would check that later just to be sure.

Her bag had ten billion pockets. He had once unzipped them all, zipped them back up and then checked again and found something he had been willing to swear hadn't been there before. He had also found a mushy plum that way, once. She did give one last half hysterical sob, leaning into him, while Treize stepped closer to rub her back gently. "It's okay. You worried about that all day, and that's stressful."

Another sniff, and Wufei was going to have to change his t-shirt. Ah, well. "I did worry about it, and Catorce asked me about it, and I just. I got overwhelmed."

 _Boys,_ Wufei mouthed over her head. So definitely stressful, that being the case.

"Okay. It's okay. We have it solved, huh?" Treize rubbed her back gently as he talked, meeting Wufei's gaze and nodding back at his mouthed words.

"We also have spaghetti, and I'm pretty sure that if we root around in the freezer or refrigerator we might find that your father's got dessert hidden in there." Or maybe something else. Treize was predictable like that.

"Absolutely." Treize leaned back slowly, giving her quiet time for a moment while she sniffed and tried to stop crying. "Okay? Come and sit with us."

Mari rubbed at her face, brushing tears from her lashes. "Can we have cookies?"

Wufei nodded. "I'll order them now. Come and help me choose, yes?"

Treize mouthed something that looked like yes, and started to stand up. "I'll just set everything out while you two order."

Reaching up, Wufei gently ruffled her red locks. "What's your favorite, again? Double chocolate mint? Peanut butter cup?"

"Peanut butter cup." She wiped at her eyes again and seemed done in. That was okay, that was better than so many other options.

"That's all right. Your father would have just eaten the double chocolate mint, anyway."

Yes, the day was stressful enough, Wufei supposed. But it was also a good day. His friend was getting help, their daughter felt better after crying, and Treize had cooked supper.

There were worse days to have.

* * *

Wufei didn't think he had ever been this nervous.

Then again, he'd never introduced someone to his mother before now. He hadn't had to. On their colony, things were either set out years in advance -- though there were fewer pre-arranged marriages now -- or they just happened. And his mother knew absolutely everyone.

And in a way, absolutely everyone already knew his current boyfriend.

It was still a bit nerve wracking, all things considered. His clan was honorable, to say the least, and they were all excellent people, but there had been a point in which OZ had been part of the Alliance, and the Alliance had killed Meiran. Had brought sickness and disease to them.

On bitter, bitter purpose.

So this was... interesting, and he hadn't quite told his mother why or what he was planning. Treize hadn't set foot on the colonies since the war, and possibly not even during the war, and it was possibly a political message, unless one witnessed Treize coming into the baggage claim area looking like a lost tourist, scanning the walls and ceiling and everywhere but Wufei.

The fact that he found it rather adorable said far too much about his ridiculous feelings for the man.

"There he is," Wufei told Mu Tsu, nodding toward Treize as he looked around in a way that said he was searching for him. It was a great deal easier to find him in a crowd when he wasn't among his clan, Wufei supposed, and then those blue eyes caught sight of Mu Tsu, because who wouldn't feel their eyes naturally drawn to him.

Mu Tsu squinted behind his glasses. It was probably time for a new prescription, since he was blind as a bat. "Well, he isn't hard on the eyes, is he?"

"No. Not at all." And Wufei was quite glad to see him.

It had been a long month while the datastreams were being structurally revised which was good for L5, but bad for smooth communications that weren't prioritized. Treize lifted a hand in a hello, a gesture that was right out of the news clips, and started toward Wufei.

The look on his face was a bit odd, and Wufei wondered what that was about. He decided not to worry about it and moved forward, walking up to him and immediately leaning into him for a kiss because he had missed that very much.

Wufei didn't expect the tight hug that he received instead, the way Treize spread a palm against his back and just clutched. "Hello." And then a kiss, right in the middle of the spaceport, the kind that tipped him off balance.

"Well," Mu Tsu declared, "I do see why you like him." He was probably smirking, too, the bastard.

He wasn't going to worry about it, though, because he was being thoroughly kissed like something out of a preposterous romcom.

That was very much an _I Missed You_ kiss, and when Treize pulled back, it was to look at Wufei. "Sorry, it was a long flight."

"It's been a long few weeks," Wufei replied, feeling slightly breathless.

"And he was quite inconsolable," Mu Tsu murmured. "Welcome to L5, General."

"You were missed." He pulled back only a little, fingers still lingering on Wufei's back. "You must be Mu Tsu."

Mu Tsu's hands were folded into each opposite sleeve and so he bowed over them, waist length black hair shifting in a waterfall over one shoulder. "It's very nice to meet you."

"It's good to meet you. I'd heard a lot about you." And it was a little awkward, but Treize looked tired and they probably needed to move to baggage claim and then leave, but he was _there._ On L5.

Mu Tsu gave a huff of a laugh. "Yes. Well. Not nearly so much as I have heard about you, I daresay."

Wufei sighed. "Well, that's unfortunately quite true. I cannot deny it."

Treize leaned in for one last kiss, softer, and he was definitely going to ask later what the man was thinking. But later. "I'll take that as a compliment."

"Shall we go, then?"

"Not if you're driving," Wufei replied, feeling altogether too soft and pleased with himself. "I saw you squinting. You need a new prescription."

Mu Tsu shrugged. "Getting new glasses has proved problematic. Perhaps now that things are being rebuilt it will be easier. Plus," he shrugged, "everyone recognizes my vehicle. They tend to move out of the way."

"Better or worse than a taxi in Brussels?" Treize asked while their cluster started to move to the door.

"Worse," Wufei decided, taking his hand and slipping their fingers together. "He drives terribly."

"I do not." He said it with affection, though, because of course he'd heard it before. "And again, everyone moves out of the way."

Treize's fingers clutched tight, squeezed, and then went normal. "Car that brightly painted?"

"It's hard to miss the purple cat on the side of his moped," Wufei teased. The feel of their hands made him happy. "But don't worry. There's space for me to sit on the back end. It's where they usually put the food for delivery."

Mu Tsu waved one hand idly. "Xian Pu's grandmother insisted. For some reason, she's taken to calling your general Meow Meow. I suggest you don't ask."

"Not the worst thing I've been called." There was amusement in his voice as they walked, and it felt like Treize was unwinding. The feel of hands touching was good, easy, like kissing, and the look Treize got in his eyes when he looked at Wufei. Wufei had missed that.

Wufei had missed everything about him. He hoped his mother would like Treize, or at least be willing to accept him.

"She thinks you should get him a collar with a bell on. Then again, she also thinks I should have one."

They stepped outside into what Wufei considered the familiar old indifferent climate control of L5, and Mu Tsu led the way to the car. "So we can be tracked?"

"Oh? No, no," Wufei replied. "Because she thinks that you are a pet. She thinks Mu Tsu is a pet Well, he is a pet."

Mu Tsu sniffed. "Hush, you."

"Now I'm very glad I didn't have room for my ego in my carryon." Since the end of the war, since he'd met Treize, the man hadn't acted like the nobility he expected, or like he'd ever been leader of anything. And he, they all, had taken jobs with the Preventers and integrated into life and it... yes, domesticated was what it felt like. It felt good.

It felt so much better than dying would have.

"Besides," Wufei murmured. "I'd be just as happy to wear the bell."

He was fairly sure that the flush on Treize's neck was from the thought and not the humidity as they headed for the parking lot.

"Perverts," Mu Tsu declared. "Here it is!"

"Ha," Wufei replied, "I know what you're like. You can't deny your own perversions." He motioned to Treize to get onto the seat and seated himself carefully on the shelf at the back. Thank god L5 was good at making everything doubly useful. They hadn't had enough vehicles to move around the colony in the beginning, and there hadn't been a great deal to spare since then. "I wouldn't bother." Mu Tsu got on the moped in front of Treize and revved it into life.

"You were not kidding about moped." Treize was clearly trying to work out how three adults and a suitcase was going to fit on a moped. "This explains everything about your motorcycle."

Wufei smirked at him and took his carry-on, putting it in his lap. "On behind Mu Tsu. You have longer legs."

He could almost see Treize's mind going into some sort of bizarre calculations, and he would laugh if it weren't so obvious. Wufei had sold some of their precious artwork to fund his war against the Alliance and Romefeller. That left them poorer than they had been originally, and they had been poor enough, particularly during the blockade. Things were looking up a bit now, but there was still so much to be done.

"Don't worry so much. We've done this before," Mu Tsu assured.

"You don't mind if I close my eyes," Treize murmured, getting on dutifully behind Mu Tsu. "This is somehow stranger than horses."

"Oh, no, it's probably for the best. Hold on," Mu Tsu advised, revving the engine, and then pulled out into the road.

Wufei managed not to laugh somehow, because yes. Everyone could see the cafe's logo on the side of the moped, but Mu Tsu drove slower than an old man. They could have walked faster probably.

But this was fun, and it was home. Eventually Treize felt less like he was bracing for an impact, and started to look around while Mu Tsu drove. This was what he'd wanted to share -- home.

A lot of it was run down, it was true, but for the most part they managed to conceal the worst of it. They had worked hard to bring the look of home with them, and Wufei liked to think that they had managed it. Just watching the streets go by with the notion that Treize was seeing it this way for the first time made him smile.

He was letting it sink in, looking around, and later he knew Treize would ask questions and probably stare at maps to work out what they had passed and where they were. And how the system worked, how the colony worked. Just thinking about it made him feel happy somewhere in the center of his cheat. It was positively disgusting.

Wufei liked it very much.

When they drove past the cafe, he saw Treize do the double take at the logo, and then they passed the hospital, always key and recognizable, on the way to the palace.

Wufei had grown up in the palace. It didn't mean what people off-colony probably thought it meant. The entire clan was in and out of the place on every sort of business imaginable, and Meiran's grandmother had always had a very open door sort of policy to everyone. Wufei's life had been all about learning how to be who he was when he was off-colony, not when he was on it. People expected for the leaders of a colony to be someone special and particular, separate from the people whom they led, and it was nothing at all like that on L5. On L5, it was more intertwined, and knowing everyone was important. That open door policy was important.

That wasn't how Romefeller had worked. "Ohhh." Treize's startled exhalation began as they passed the gardens on the outskirts of the palace, mostly heavy with produce, and the flowers of root vegetables. It made Wufei smile, because he was glad that Treize appreciated the beauty they'd created. His mother worked hard on making sure the gardens were well organized and properly harvested. His favorite harvest was the berry harvest, although he was also incredibly fond of the plums as well.

"I'll show you everything," he said a little loudly as Mu Tsu slowed even further to make the turn that led up to the gates.

It didn't stall, which he was grateful for, and then Mu Tsu was about to turn it off as they stopped outside the gates. "I do appreciate a garden."

"You'll love this one. And everything you eat will come out of it." There were tiered gardens all over the place, in fact, since L5 was smaller than some of the other colonies.

"This is wildly different than L1." But seemed to be a closer comparison than L2, which was possibly a point of pride. Mu Tsu put the brake down, and Treize got up in something of a hurry.

"Thank you for the ride," Wufei told him politely as he stood as well. It was a relief; riding on the shelf was uncomfortable.

Mu Tsu waved one hand and squinted, his eyes huge behind the lenses. "You know I'll always accompany you when asked."

"Of course."

It wasn't that Mu Tsu was the one who had gotten away; life had changed, and they had both grown in different directions as adults. But he was so glad to have friends, real ones. "Thank you -- it was good to meet you, Mu Tsu."

Ah, that smile was crooked and charming. "I had to meet the person who made him this happy. It's disgusting, you know." He absolutely didn't mean that.

Treize leaned a little and took Wufei's hand in his. "Thank you?"

"I'll bring food over tonight," Mu Tsu said, and then was gone, leaving them alone together.

"He's also disgusting in his love life," Wufei assured. "Xian Pu spent years turning up her nose at him, but they're Nǚjié zú. He finally managed to defeat her in combat." "In combat? Is that... standard around here?" Treize leaned a little to watch him go.

"For Nǚjié zú it is. The Chinese government didn't bother sorting out who was Nǚjié zú and who was Liung. They just sent us all." Which had been better for both genetic pools, Wufei was fairly certain. It kept things lively on the colony, with only a little political clashing between the two groups. He could see in another four or five generations the two integrating more. "Huh. But trial by combat for affection." He quirked an eyebrow at Wufei suggestively.

Wufei shrugged. "They only accept the strongest of men. Our clans are both matrilineal in nature, although my clan doesn't prefer trial by combat when it comes to marriage." He allowed his gaze to linger over Treize from his feet all the way up. "I suspect you'll be considered acceptable."

"I hope so. Are we uh." He gestured to the steps with his free hand. "How has the last month been?"

Bag in hand, Treize by the other, Wufei began to make his way up the steps and into the Imperial compound. "Busy. We've been doing a lot of renovation and getting things working that were falling apart." Which had made them poorer, overall, but being able to export goods was helping and things were being carefully watched and planned.

"I could be useful." And he could be useful at home, helping to set up complicated processes that fit into a larger world process, but instead he was here, holding Wufei's hand and looking around the compound as they made their way toward his mother's quarters.

"I'm grateful you came."

"You asked me to come, though I didn't realize it was to meet your mother. I'm rather relieved." That sounded like he hadn't come up with any positive sort of story to explain the invitation, and Wufei had been sure that he hadn't been that vague, had he?

"Why else would I ask you to come?" Wufei was sincerely curious as to what he might have thought, and why he would have come with only negative possibilities in mind.

There was a pause, and the answer that followed was very sincere. "Well to break up with me in a way that rubs salt in the wound. Which seems to be the only way it's ever been done in my experience."

Wufei very much wanted to hit everyone who'd ever done that to Treize in that moment. His fingers clenched, held on tightly, and his teeth ground together. "I would never. If I ever plan to break up with you, there will be yelling and fury. So. Keep that in memory."

"I occasionally realize I've been badly trained by previous relationships." They had stopped outside the door to his mother's apartments, and Treize leaned in to kiss him briefly. "Fury. Noted."

"But also," Wufei murmured, "there will be fury when we are not breaking up. Because sometimes making up is also very nice."

"That is something he learned from his father," an amused voice came from behind Treize. "And he was not entirely wrong about that."

His mother had a certain bearing to her, a familiar posture of self possession and air of strength that well overcame her height. Treize smiled slightly. "Ma'am. I'm glad to meet you."

"I had wondered how long it would be." Her hair was silver shot and her face was gently lined. Wufei looked a great deal like her, actually. She allowed Treize to take her hand and gently kiss it in greeting. "Wufei, you should never think you can hide anything from your mother."

"Yes, Ma." That was doubtless very true. He hadn't even tried very often, there was no point. She always knew.

She just simply... knew. And he loved her for that, that he didn't have to explain things at great length because she guessed correctly. "Earth isn't so terrible, but I'm glad he's stayed around for me."

"He's a very good boy." She looked up at Treize, head tilted to the side. "And if you hurt him, I can always use more fertilizer."

"Ma!"

"It wouldn't be on purpose. Your son is very important to me." Important in that leaving him had left him feeling lonely; he kept catching himself trying to tell Treize something offhandedly only to realize that he wasn't there.

His mother smiled up at him, pleased. "Good. He is also important to me. Now, come inside. Leave your shoes by the door. I feel sure that Wufei will show you to the appropriate room."

"I'm sure he will." Treize stopped by the lined up slippers, and he was following cues appropriately enough that Wufei thought they could get through it without shaming themselves.

If anyone had suggested to him that this would be the person in whom he invested his emotions and affections, he would have laughed at them once upon a time. As it turned out, that would have been a terrible mistake.

Catching Treize's hand again once their shoes were off, he tugged, amused at the notion of taking him to his childhood bedroom. It was almost preposterous as a consideration.

He wondered if it would make him laugh.

"Where are we going?" Treize went, followed easily, and perhaps childhood bedroom would carry the same connotation regardless of society. He had grown up there, and now it was time to show it to someone new who was family for him.

"To the most humiliating place possible," Wufei replied with all solemnity, and pushed open his bedroom door.

The bed, fortunately, was not at all small; he'd been a very active sleeper when he was young, and his grandfather had finally thrown up his hands and created a much sturdier bed, large enough for him to grow into.

Unfortunately, his entire childhood was held within, which meant that Treize was coming into a space that had long since ceased to represent Wufei himself. There were still clusters of things in the room -- his study area had small mobile suit models, one corner held the remnants of an obsession with dinosaurs when he'd been four, and he was fairly certain that if his wardrobe doors came open there would be stacks of graphic novels hoarded behind the socks.

His time there in the last few years had been transitory, moving from one location to another, and the war blurred better memories the same way it blurred the other ones. Treize had a smile as he entered the space. "This is wonderful."

That wasn't the word Wufei would call it. "Ignore the accumulated clutter. I've never thought of getting rid of it. I stopped living here once I married, and I haven't been here that often since."

He made a beeline for the tiny models. "Is this a Leo and an Aries?" And kept looking over at the dinosaurs.

"Yes. My grandfather liked model kits, and they were already teaching me engineering and tactics related to fighting against them. They're very small, but they do move." That had been an enjoyable time, and Wufei remembered it fondly.

He had loved his grandfather and would very likely have been a different person if the world had been different in a way that was kinder to him. Treize looked but didn't touch, because clearly these were treasures.

"He died after the Alliance attack." It felt strange and awkward to say it, but it had happened. "He was very old by then."

"He might have lived longer without the attack." Treize straightened a little, looking at the dinosaurs now. "I have a lot to make up for."

Wufei felt his jaw set. "No. You don't. You take on too much responsibility." His head tilted to the side. "You can only be responsible for your own mistakes. This one, it was the Alliance's responsibility."

"It was. But it was a continuation of Vingt's tactics..." Treize looked up to the ceiling for a moment, as if he were talking himself through something. They had had the _there is no such thing as an actual child warlord running the show_ talk a couple of months prior in Treize's apartment in Brussels. "And you are right."

"Of course I am." He left Treize's bag by the door and stepped up behind him, arms sliding around his waist. "I so often am right. Now. You must be exhausted. We have time for a nap before dinner."

"Lying down with you sounds perfect." He turned a little, slowly, looping himself around Wufei and relaxing into it. "And then you have to tell me about the drawings."

Wufei smiled against Treize's chest. "I was obsessed with dinosaurs. My mother had to make me a tyrannosaurus rex costume. I wouldn't take it off for a week." He paused and lifted his face. "There are photos."

"Ohhh, I am going to relish the photos," Treize decided, lips curled at the edge with what looked like the purest joy. "In a dinosaur costume. Oh, that is." Arms squeezed him lightly. "Perfect."

"It's disgustingly adorable," Wufei murmured, closing his eyes and tilting his head upward to kiss Treize's chin, the divot beneath his lower lip, his mouth. "I promise."

"Nap and then photos. I promise to do nothing wicked." Yet, not when it was still daylight and his mother was in the kitchen.

"Nap." And one more kiss, but then he tugged him over to the bed and they curled into it together, Wufei's datapad close by in case he couldn't actually nap while Treize did. It would be nice just to lie there and feel him, because he had missed him ridiculously. And if he took far more delight in the faint snuffling snore than anyone should, well.

Nobody else had to know.

* * *

They had eventually napped, and Wufei had seemed slightly more at peace when he woke up. The knee wrench had been a bit of an I Told You So, but one did not maintain a peaceable household by rubbing things in.

A lesson he was going to pay to have picked out in embroidery and sent to Zechs for Christmas.

After all. Someone had to remind him of these things. It wasn't a lesson he was likely to pick up without being forcibly reminded.

The flight for Anne and Mari had in fact ended up delayed, so they had gone to Nicola's to meet Kathy. It wasn't quite what they'd hoped for, but they could come up with other plans for tomorrow. He'd even managed to convince Wufei to take his cane with him, so that was something.

Treize was of the attitude that if someone moved all the way to Mars to open a restaurant celebrating the food of their home country, they were either very good or very ballsy, and either deserved patronage. Nicola's was both, tucked into a mixed use development section of the capitol and the ambiance was welcoming and eclectic.

"Welcome, welcome, it is good to see you again." Nicola patted his belly, the apron spattered a bit with tonight's dinner. "I have all of your favorites tonight."

Wufei gave a sound. "Excellent. I love your eggplant."

"And the lamb manti? Any manti. And starters to share because we have company," he said, making eyebrows at Kathy because yes, it was going to be a week of unhealthy behavior which sounded excellent.

"Ahhh, and the little miss will have all of the baklava she can hold," Nicola agreed. Kathy loved the stuff and when she had been younger she had managed to eat every piece he had brought to her.

"Yes, Nicola," she responded with a bright smile. "As always."

Sally had found the place first, and it was full of good memories. Nicola left them menus just in case something weird happened and they changed their minds. "This is worth coming into the city for."

"Mmm, normally I would say yes," Kathy agreed, "but you're a week early and you've made me suspicious. You aren't dying, are you, Uncle Wufei?"

"Hm? No, don't be ridiculous," Wufei replied. "I'm perfectly fine."

‘We wanted a change of pace’ would not get them anywhere. Treize knew she was a good investigator and it was better to be honest. "He is. I... overreacted to him having a migraine and well, since we're here, might as well enjoy the city."

She still had a suspicious gleam in her eye. "And what did your doctor say?"

Wufei frowned. "We only just came into town, Kathy. I'll make an appointment tomorrow."

"It'll be fine. I just... worry." That wasn't out of character for him at all, though it would have been before he'd spent so much time with Wufei.

"He does," Wufei agreed. "When I moved wrong today and my knee made an unpleasant sound, he insisted on a bath to help relax me. He just frets. You shouldn't worry, Kathy, he worries enough for all of us combined."

"It was a really terrible noise," Treize quipped as Nicola came back with water. "Like a box of crackers."

"Honestly, you need to go ahead and have a knee replacement. The longer you put it off, the more likely it is that the head of your femur will also need replacing and everything turns difficult at that point."

She had a good point, and Wufei looked at least a little guilty. "I'll at least discuss it with him this trip. All right?" Ahh, so apparently he was more easily guilted into things than he had been in this timeline. Treize supposed that wasn't unreasonable considering they had been much closer by virtue of being all the other one had left.

Here? Here Wufei had Mari and Treize and more people who could only apply so much pressure. "Excellent." It was hard not to sound brighter when he said that, as the waiter brought the mezze platter out.

"You're just happy I'm agreeing," Wufei sniffed, and he was already dipping a piece of pita into the baba ganoush.

"We're both happy you're agreeing," Kathy agreed, popping a bite of feta in her mouth.

"I want to have decades of adventure with you out in our cabin. It would be easier if your knee didn't sound like chips." He leaned gently in to Wufei, bumped his shoulder because he had learned the level of acceptable public displays over the years. And his family hadn't ever been terribly affectionate, or functional. That was one more thing they had navigated together.

It was hard to imagine that there was a world where he'd managed to kill himself before he'd learned to enjoy just holding hands, the weird childish pleasure of it, and it wasn't unsurprising to him when Wufei reached out and shoved a piece of pita in his mouth. It was enough to make Kathy roll her eyes at them, though.

"Never change," she told them, and that smile was quite lovely. They had done a good job after Sally had died, or at least he liked to think so.

At least they hadn't wrecked any of Sally's hard work. He hoped. He chewed his bite of pita, and grinned at her after he swallowed it. "This is why you should let us meet your boyfriends."

"Oh, no." That response was fast, and the one she had always given. "Not until someone is serious enough to torture them with you both."

"Mari says the same thing," he mused, glancing over at Wufei. "But she's not worried about my standards."

Wufei preened just a bit. "Of course not. My mother still approves of you, which was entirely shocking."

"She's a wonderfully scathing woman, and she has all the best gossip about the colony. I think she thinks I could worry just a little more." He took a sip of his water, and realized Wufei had gone still beside him.

"Are you all right?" Kathy had obviously noticed it, too, and when Wufei turned Treize he seemed a little stunned.

"Yes?" That was a question more than a response. "I'm fine."

He slipped a hand beneath the table to grab and squeeze Wufei's thigh. "We should call her when Mari gets into town tomorrow morning. She likes seeing everyone."

"Ah, that's true. And we'll all be together for once." He still seemed a little off, but he was doing a better job of hiding it.

"You are not fine. Something is off, and if you don't think that I'll tell Mari first thing, you are entirely wrong."

He was very glad he'd never had to go into covert work because he was terrible at it. It was easier to let the silence stretch out, and then he decided, "After dinner we'll explain. Back at the apartment."

Wufei made a face. "How did we help raise such a suspicious child?"

Kathy lifted one eyebrow. "Because you're both sneaky and suspicious, of course."

Treize somehow managed to actually enjoy the meal after that because, well, there was nothing to be done, and the delicate manti and harissa was not to be wasted. Wufei relaxed, eventually, and working through the knowledge that his mother was still alive was, well, Treize just hadn't quite remembered to mention it. In with everything else.

It had to feel a little overwhelming, but Wufei seemed to take it well enough. Dinner was excellent, and they went home with enough baklava to make them sick if they ate it in one sitting. Kathy didn't even harass them on the way home, waiting patiently until they were in the apartment again, and when she turned in the foyer, Treize could tell they weren't getting out of anything.

"Sit down and I'll make tea." There was lavender tea with mint that Wufei enjoyed for nights rather like that, and for overeating. "This is... sort of my fault."

"Except it's actually my fault, when you get right down to it," Wufei disagreed, walking into the living room. "I'm the one who accidentally built a machine for time travel. Sort of."

"And I couldn't let it go and felt compelled to change things." He lingered in the foyer after locking the door, shrugging out of his jacket.

That was enough to let Kathy react to start.

"Why are both of you this way?" she sighed, shaking her head. "Honestly. You've done something bad, haven't you?"

"Bad is relative." Wufei settled into his chair as Treize wandered toward the kitchen to put on the kettle.

He didn't add anything while he filled it with water, and plugged it in, watching Kathy stand in the middle of the room with her arms crossed. "You know the memory viewing device we have at headquarters."

"Of course. You've both uploaded all sorts of things, it's quite remarkable."

"That's one word for it," Wufei muttered. "He was dead before."

It was hard not to smile reflexively, apologetically as he leaned in the doorway. "In my original timeline, I killed myself at the pinnacle of the Eve War. I threw Tallgeese II at Nataku, knowing Wufei would spear me. Or at least that's what the history books told me when I found myself in Wufei's body in roughly the present time because the memory viewing system can, technically, be turned into a time machine."

"Which I didn't expect at all," Wufei admitted, and Kathy was looking at both of them as if they'd lost their minds. Probably she did think that. "The time machine part. I should have noticed the suicidal tendencies."

"I ended up stuck here, in Wufei's body for, hmn, two months? And when I finally got it fixed and swapped back -- with your help -- I was determined not to make those mistakes again. I'd done some planning with Anne, and modeled a few options out. Wufei just... returned to himself. Just now. Well, a couple of days ago." The kettle failed to whistle conveniently so he could leave.

Kathy's face was definitely judgmental. "I can't decide if I need to take both of you for evaluation or not."

"No one needs to be evaluated. Wufei just needs... time to adjust to the timeline change. I wasn't sure if he'd return to his original timeline, where he was alone, or come into this one. You've read some of Quatre's theories on timelines." And okay, they were a little like dropping LSD, but as someone who had touched on at least two, they followed a sort of sense.

"I'm rather glad to have come into this timeline," Wufei confessed. "I was... quite lonely before. You would come out almost every weekend with groceries because you worried I would die when you weren't looking. And your mother died much earlier."

"L5 self-destructed during the war. The mess with the insurgents we just went through was exceedingly more dramatic and deadly. There were... so many more wars than I had expected after this Earth sphere war to end all wars." The kettle whistled, but he didn't move. "And Wufei was cunning and fascinating."

Ah, he was blushing just a bit. Treize did like to make that happen. "Being the last of my clan was very difficult," he murmured, and Kathy moved forward and settled on the floor at his feet before moving in to hug him, which gave Treize the opportunity to do something about the shrieking kettle. By the time he came back with tea, he was on the receiving end of his own hug.

"I wanted to try to fix things. Or at least not make them worse, which I think on the whole..." And he still remembered, faintly, non-intrusively, how deeply sad Anne had been. Knowing full well that he'd been dead for so long and yet someone had cared that much. People had been obsessed and interested enough and he hadn't known at the time, when he'd most needed to know. Because he'd had his head up his own ass and his own plan.

"Never think that way again," Kathy murmured against his chest. "We'd all be devastated."

"Which is true," Wufei agreed, rising from his chair to come and hug them both.

He had to inhale to steady himself, glad that he'd made the tea in a pot or everyone would've had mild hot water burns from spilled cups. One armed, he hugged them both back. "Twenty something years of good therapy helped. And a second chance."

"Uncle Trey, you're so ridiculous." Yes, but she was sniffling a little.

"Everything will be fine. It's, all of it is coming together in my brain. We came into the city early because the memories give me headaches. He worries too much," Wufei murmured.

"It's _actually_ unprecedented," Treize pointed out, "so... it seems to be going smoothly. Tea?"

"Yes, please," Wufei agreed, pulling away from him. "Come along, Kathy. We'll be fine. I promise."

"Or we'll be weird, but I think it will work out," he said with an attempt at a smile. "I think we'll need to visit your mother, Wufei."

He seemed a little misty-eyed thinking about it. "Yes. I think so. I've missed her."

Treize poured tea into the mugs that were already in the living room, and set the pot down. "You message her on and off all the time. She took to modern tech better than some of our staff."

"Hm." Wufei took his own mug and curled into his usual chair, one leg tucked under him and the one with the bad knee slung over the arm of the chair. He'd done that too many times to count, but it was reassuring to see him do it now. "For me, she had been dead since 195."

Oh and the world had been strange and wildly different from that one massive change. "You went home for a month in 196, and then called and said I needed to join you and meet your mother. I honestly thought I'd been thrown over for Mu Tsu."

Wufei laughed, and Kathy was watching them with a fascinated gleam in her eye. "No, no. He'd moved on by then, and was an old married man." He was blind as a bat, but also very pretty when he was younger. Still quite pretty, Treize thought, but he and Wufei had ended things amicably long before Treize came along.

"Yes, well, I was still a melodramatic asshole and miserable in the office. Your mother called it ridiculous and rescued me from a bar near the headquarters, and that was when I knew she was going to be a lifelong friend." That last he directed at Kathy, sipping his tea.

"I love Gee-Ma," Kathy declared. She had called her that long before her own mother had died because Wufei was the only one who'd had a still-living parent. His father had been dead since the third Hundred Flowers movement had caused the Liung Clan to be forcibly sent to live on L5.

"She always was a remarkable woman," Wufei murmured.

She hadn't dated again, but she had a rich life and a home on L5. There was always a story about who'd had grandchildren, or great-grandchildren, or old lady gossip, which Treize found to be the best kind of gossip -- like royal court gossip, but with better knives. "Yes. She absolutely refuses to leave L5, so getting her to come to Mars is a bit impossible."

"Mmmm, she always has enjoyed being close to family." They hadn't had a very large one in some time, but she was fond of many people and had been part of the larger Imperial family for a very long time. Wufei's wife had been in line to lead the clan before her death, and afterwards there had been some consternation as to what would happen. Wufei had confessed to him that he was grateful when they had decided to pass the title of Empress on to one of Meiran's cousins. "But you may have to fill me in on the more recent issues."

"We'll do more prep than we did for Kathy." He looked over at her wryly. "Do you remember that toy warhorse she gave you?"

Kathy laughed. "Remember it? I still have it. It has pride of place in my bedroom."

He snuck a look over to Wufei, who was looking quite misty, in a way he seldom looked without drinking and reminiscing. "Ah, that's excellent. She is... something remarkable." From a man whose mother had never parented, he could recognize good.

"I've missed all of them," Wufei said, and that was all. He didn't seem to want to say anything else, which was perfectly understandable, Treize thought.

He had lived without them for over two decades and now the awareness that they were alive was filtering back to him and that was... heavy. Treize breathed in his tea for a moment. And smiled over at Kathy. "So does this seem slightly less mad now?"

"Not really," she replied, "but craziness is par for the course with you two, sometimes. I suppose I'll just have to live with it and keep a close eye on you both."

"I've kept this a secret for well over two decades." It had felt a bit like an old fever dream the further he'd gotten from it, but now the jangle of it did feel fresh again, in a way.

Wufei turned to look at him. "Would you have kept it forever if I never remembered?" That was more curiosity than anything else.

"I don't know. Possibly." He knew sometimes Wufei eyed him if he was doing something... that particularly smacked of the madness that galloped through the family. "I remembered it was around now. I suppose if you still hadn't... come back by Christmas I might've assumed you ended up back in your original timeline." Alone.

And this life was so much better that it was hard to feel guilt at his meddling.

"I suppose I'll keep you," Wufei decided, but the smile that came his way said something much more adoring than the words themselves.

"That's good, because you'd have to take the cat if we separated. He likes you better." And he would be cranky by the time they got home, but Treize knew they'd be forgiven.

"Mmm, I know. When we go home, he'll forgive us both for leaving him, I think. After he puts a hairball in your shoe." Because Ferdinand was vindictive about some things.

And he would wait, and make sure that Treize knew it was him. It would be fresh.

That was pet ownership. Treize sipped at his tea. "I'm so glad that you did come back to this one."

Wufei hummed, face down as he sipped his tea. "Me, too. The other one was... lonely."

That was enough to prompt Kathy into moving, hugging both of them again. "I'm glad to have both of you, however it might have come about."

"You turned out to be an amazing adult in both timelines," Treize smiled at her, leaning in for a moment. "Shall I dig out the photo album and we can talk Wufei through the highlights?"

"Yes, please. I would love that." And so she rose to go and look for it.

He couldn't wait for Wufei to see everything.


End file.
